The in Between
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: Magical growth is strongest in the younger years. The slayers (and Erza) enjoy watching their kids experience them. - Part of the Remember Me series.
1. Locke

Most of the core members of Fairy Tail could recall with great nostalgia the years of their youth where they didn't matter much, what they did and didn't do, to the older generation, and could just be kids taking the lower level jobs, traveling around Fiore, kicking ass and fucking shit up. It was part of the whole mage experience. The freedom intertwined with thoughts of grandeur. One day,it would be you going on S-Class jobs, not being around for months at a time, having legends and stories passed around about your many accomplishments.

It was a time for great experimentation, learning of all sorts of spells, but relevant and irrelevant to your core magic. Away from home, you could either spend your days screwing around or you could actually try and learn something. Try and be something. Make a name for yourself. Natsu didn't become the Salamander overnight anymore than Erza became Titania. It took years of practice and skill honing. It didn't matter how much innate ability one possessed; it matter if they assisted in it's growth.

When they were coming up, with very little parental guidance (a complete absence of it, honestly, for the most part), these things were sought after by them all with little to no resistance. Parents themselves now, however, many of the things that they looked back fondly on seemed awfully irresponsible and dangerous and...and…

This was mainly a problem for the others though. Gajeel, heh, he was raised with even more freedom than the others had been. He didn't have Makarov waiting around for him, to make sure that he got home from a job _eventually, _to worry about whether or not he was safe. Nope. After Metallicana split, it was just himself looking out for himself.

Now. He didn't want that for his son. Locke. No matter how many times he loudly proclaimed that. No. He wanted Locke to know that he was right there with him, even if he wasn't around. He didn't necessarily voice this very well, but he wasn't too good at talking good, so that was okay, he figured. The boy understood, didn't he?

Maybe.

Locke was the oldest of all the slayer kids, something that Gajeel had some pride in. Not to mention the only boy. For a good while, at least. That meant that Gajeel was getting his legacy passed on, unlike the other slayers (although Natsu now had two sons, but they hardly counted for nothing, Gajeel was certain). That meant that he would be the first to learn magic, the strongest of all the others, the best at everything. He'd teach him some magic, Gajeel was, and the kid would probably be interested in some stuff on his own, and he'd be S-Class by the time he was a teenager. Before his old man, maybe, even, and that would be a bit demoralizing, but even more so invigorating.

Gajeel ahd big dreams for his son. From the first time he held him, he knew, Locke was gonna be something special.

Locke, however, didn't feel this often as he was growing. One of his biggest obstacles in growth was, in fact, Fairy Tail. Or at least the environment it provided him. Maybe in any other guild, or even any other place on the planet, he could focus on getting stronger and better at his own pace and develop his skills in accordance to need. This wasn't allowed for the boy, however, because he was constantly at odds with one of the people Gajeel had long counted out.

"The Dreyar girl," he remembered growling to Locke a lot when he was a boy, "isn't your friend."

Not really. That's what he tried to hammer home to the boy when he'd come home bloodied from a fight with her.

"She's your adversary," he'd insist to Locke who'd only shake his head.

"No," he'd say around a bloodied lip. "She's my friend."

Far from it.

It was all his stupid mom's fault. That's who Gajeel blamed it on. Levy. She'd told Locke when he was young that it was his job to look out for them. The girls. Haven, the oldest Dreyar girl, Navi, Natsu's brat, and then the youngest Dreyar girl, Marin. He was the oldest and the boy and that meant that he was supposed to make sure they were okay.

Only Haven was never okay.

She was in a perpetual state of not being mentally sound. Gajeel should know. He was usually stuck in it as well!

"She's," he grumbled more than once to Levy, "not good for him."

It was true. Very true. Haven wasn't too bad of a friend, when they were toddlers. But somewhere around the age of six or so, she just turned into this impossible to deal with brat who had parents who only indulged in this and allowed her to bully his poor Locke. Which Gajeel was pretty pissy about, at first. Then he got more pissy at Locke for not defending himself.

"Just," he growled more than once, "hit her back."

But he wouldn't. Not at first. Not when they were little. Locke saw her aggression as just needing to be even nicer to Haven, in order to get her out of that state. It was annoying. Gajeel never thought he'd wanna see a little girl battered and bloodied, but he did that Dreyar girl.

Oh, man, he might have even hated Haven, maybe. For Locke's sake.

He would learn that it was acceptable to fight her back though, Locke would, eventually. Not that it meant much. Locke was older and bigger, but Haven had more heart, and when they fought, even before either had hit ten, they seemed rather even. There were stretches of time where the two of them seemed to spend everyday they were around one another quarreling. And if not quarreling, then certainly bickering.

But you ask the kid what he fucking wanted to do that day. Just ask him. And he'd only say, "Go play with Haven."

Arg!

"They're just kids, Gajeel," Levy would tell him with a bit of a frown though he knew that she too wasn't too fond of the little girl. No way was she. "Kids fight. Gray and Natsu used to fight every single day, I think, when we were kids."

Yeah, but they were two boys. Two boys should do that. Push one another. Haven wasn't pushing Locke. She wasn't helping him grow. She was making him look like a big weanie! She was...was…

"Annoying." Locke started to call her that eventually, as he got older. "Haven's annoying."

And she was. Very annoying. It got old, eventually, always arguing with one another. Boring, even, maybe. IT got easier to just give in to her. Both he and Navi agreed.

They spent a good chunk of time together too. He and Navi. She was different from Haven though. Gajeel really didn't think about her that much, other than when she was hanging around his house. Becuase then he had to smell the fucking Salamander, if not be around the Salamander who seemed unable to let his fucking daughter do anything without him, and that was annoying too. For different reasons.

Navi didn't fight. At all. She didn't like it. So Gajeel saw her of no interest. The worst thing she did was distract Locke, honestly, from training. She had these dumb things called interests and friends and junk that didn't even know magic or nothing. Gajeel did not want her influencing Locke to go down that path. The lazy path. The path where you didn't become an S-Class wizard and eventually cream Haven and her stupid Master father both. No. Locke had a destiny to fulfill. A legacy to uphold.

He didn't have time for 'friends'. They would only get in the way!

"Says," Pantherlily would tsk often, "the man who has no friends."

This would only enrage the slayer though, as the boy would laugh at this, and insist that, yeah, he did have friends. And even if he didn't, well, it was only 'cause he never wanted any! 'cause he was a serious mage!

Eventually though, Gajeel's many rants and raves just became kind of commonplace for Locke. He hardly listened, even, really. It was still a heavy burden on his shoulders, the wants and desires of his father, and he did want to eventually, become all those things. S-Class. A serious mage. He just...he didn't wanna sacrifice his friends for those things.

It felt like a tight rope a lot. It was some time after his eleventh birthday that his parents (and the Master) began letting him go on real jobs, alone jobs, far away jobs, all on his own. It was an exciting time. He knew he was ready.

This was hampered, once more, by the fact that Haven wasn't given such freedom. She was allowed more serious jobs though (it was kind of what led to him being allowed such things), but she had to have him, Navi, and Erza's student, Ravan, to accompany her. Or at least, Laxus gave him eventually, Locke.

Which meant that Haven needed him to not go out so often, ion his own, solo jobs, because she wasn't allowed to yet, and was that really fair? Yeah, probably, actually, but she didn't feel that way and, well, she was his friend. His best friend. It was a weird friendship, yeah, one that ended with both of them bandaged up more often than not, but when they were out on jobs, they had other things to focus on. Other things to take their aggressions out on. So they were much less likely to do that to one another. Beat one another up.

They had monsters and bandits to do that.

But Gajeel was very judgmental about all this.

"What are you? Huh? A serious wizard?" he'd grumble to Locke often. "Or some sort of duo?"

But...why couldn't he be both?

Because it hadn't been, for him. For Gajeel. Both hadn't been an option. He was by himself his whole adolescence. The entirety of it. This left an impression on him that true growth came from solitude. True growth meant finding it from inside yourself. Taking your hardships and facing them alone. All your demons.

Haven (and Navi too, in a certain was) was a damper on this. Gajeel wanted his son to break away from them, finally. Haven especially. Fine, okay, he'd given in. It was kind of cute at times, watching Locke argue and fight and get all bloodied with them (again, mostly Haven), but those days were over. They weren't kids anymore.

If his son was ever going to be a man, than he needed to hurry the hell up!

It would happen, anyways. The separation. As mentioned before, Locke was older. Which meant that he experienced all the firsts before the others. And puberty aided in the separation.

He and Haven had always been, more or less, the same size, but he started growing far taller, far faster. He was getting stronger too, physically, much faster. It was getting harder for her to keep up with him, in battle, and he could feel it, honestly, Whether she would admit it or not, once, when they were doing their typical quarreling one day, and she'd had him on the ropes, maybe, sort of, but it only took one punch. A real one. With real force behind it. Enough to actually knock her out.

Haven looked so betrayed, later, when things had settled some. After Laxus and Gajeel were done bitching at one another about the whole thing and, eventually, Locke was allowed to go up to the infirmary to see Haven.

"I'm sorry I gave you a concussion," he offered, but she only snorted and refused to look at him. "I guess I didn't know-"

"My head," she argued back, "hit the ground, which knocked me out. Not you. And I don't need your dumb apology, Locke."

But she wasn't so keen on fighting, brute strength to brute strength again. No. She made sure to fry him, always, before he had a chance to land a clean blow on her. A safe plan.

"Maybe," Levy suggested gently though, that night, to Locke, "you and Haven cool it for awhile, huh? Master won't be too happy, you know, if you seriously hurt Haven."

"It looks like bullying, anyways," Lily offered up, thoughtfully, to the boy, "when you're so much better on her, but keep fighting with her."

This wasn't true, of course. And no one that saw the two of them would ever feel that way. Arguments between them always started because of Haven's sour attitude and, more often than not, Locke was just defending himself. He went a tad overboard that time, fine, but in no way was he _bullying_ Haven.

He did feel bad though, for her, that day. They'd injured one another quite harshly in years past, ended up bandaged, black, and blue, but he'd never actually hit Haven that hard before. He'd never wanted to. And she hadn't him (though, he wasn't so sure that was only because she couldn't). No. This was a line in the sand. A clear, obvious separation.

And man, Gajeel couldn't feel more pumped to see it.

He tried hard not to let on to this, when Laxus was on his ass about the whole thing, but seeing the Dreyar brat, there, passed out, really filled him with some sort of glee. She'd finally gotten what she deserved. AT the hands of his son. His boy. His _man_. Locke was going to be done with the Dreyar girl, finally, and move on to bigger and better things.

"What do ya mean, Locke?" he complained the next morning when, instead of heading out on a job (it was under the suggestion of Master Laxus, who didn't wanna see him the next few days; he was pretty pissed, Gajeel felt, for a man whose daughter spent her days just hoping to body the other children as badly as she was currently), Locke only planned on going over to the Dreyar house. Where he wasn't invited. "You're going to see Haven? The Master ain't gonna like it!"

"He will when he sees that I've come to apologize again."

"The girl don't want an apology!"

Yeah, but he wouldn't feel good about what had happened until he'd more than offered it up.

He was right, his father was. The Master was not pleased to see him. At all. Neither was Haven. But Locke had used some of his hard earned jewels to buy donuts for the house and, well, Marin and Mirajane were pleased, anyways.

"I didn't mean to hit Haven that hard, Master," Locke told him when he left. Laxus was headed down to the guild at the same time and, though he was still kind of pissy over the whole thing, he allowed the boy to walk with him. "Honest. We were just fighting."

"Yeah," Laxus grumbled. "I know."

"Then-":

"Haven's my daughter, Locke," the man told him simply. "There's never going to be a time when I'm happy to see her like that. Ever. At all. I'm never going to root for anyone to be better than her. I'm never going to be okay with seeing her unconscious from being beaten up. What kind of father would I be then?"

Locke only kicked at the ground as he said, "I won't do it again."

"No. You will."

"What do you mean?"

The man could only shrug as he continued to not glance at the boy. "Haven's not going to stop. She's never going to stop. Not until she's better than you. Even if it means getting knocked on her ass like that a thousand times, she's never going to accept that you're better than her. Until you're the one that she's having to apologize to, she's never going to quit bothering you. So if that bugs you, Locke, as much as your father makes it to, then tell me right now. I'll keep you two away from one another. Because if not, I'm not going to tell her to stop, I'm not going to let her stop, trying to be better than you until she actually is. And I don't want you to stop either."

He only swallowed, the boy did, as he looked up, finally, at the slayer. "It doesn't bother me, Master. Fighting Haven, doesn't. Haven doesn't either. She's annoying, but… I want to be stronger than her, too."

"Good." Laxus finally glanced down at him and Locke wasn't sure if he'd ever gotten that, if he ever would again, the Master's full attention. Grinning at him toothily, Laxus told him, "Between the two of ya, we might be the strongest guild for years to come. Now go pick a fuckin' job. I'm tired of seeing your face."

He picked a nice long one. As he hoped, when he got back, Haven was at least somewhat happy to see him again. At least, she and Navi had been waiting for him, so that they could take a job. And, unfortunately, Ravan was as well.

Locke figured his golden years as a growing mage (or at least what his parents referred to as a gold years) would feel a lot better if the other boy was constantly hanging around. His mother told him to never hate anyways. At all. It wasn't the Fairy Tail way. But damn it, he hated Ravan so much. He'd never felt that, honestly, before he met the other boy. Hatred. But Ravan drug it out of him. Every damn time.

"Why can't ya just fight him? Huh? Like you do Haven?" Gajeel would complain a lot when, instead of sparking this from his son, Ravan just sparked...something close to anger, maybe, but not quite. Resentment? No. He had nothing to resent Ravan for. He was just a poor, dumb orphan who was lucky Erza was a generous person. No one liked him. At all. How could they? He sucked. He was stupid and dumb and felt like he was better than everyone else because...because… Because why? Huh? Locke had never been given a concrete reason from the other boy about why he felt that way. Just that Ravan felt as if he were better than them, him, honestly, it felt like, and that meant he could act like an ass towards them constantly.

While still needing their help just as frequently.

It was more than a bit ridiculous.

If it were left up to Locke, Ravan would have been excommunicated by that point. If not from Fairy Tail (he didn't have that kind of authority, after all), then certainly their friend group. And Navi would have no objections. She told Locke frequently that Ravan creeped her out. Even more so as they got older. No, if it were left up to the two of them, the other kid wouldn't even be an associate.

It was Haven that, for some reason, kept him around.

She used to hate him just as much as Locke did. Maybe more. Locke was pretty sure she still did. But with each passing year, it felt less like that mattered. Locke wasn't...jealous or anything. Because he was still definitely Haven's best friend and then, maybe Navi, maybe nobody, but Ravan certainly wasn't anywhere close to even being a regular friend.

Not really.

But they had their own thing going on, Haven and Ravan did. Something Locke didn't understand and, even when he complained about it, Haven would only get angry with him for bringing up. She seemed to constantly find reasons that Ravan just had to follow them. Just had to go out on a job with them. Just had to be there, with them, when they went to do anything. They trained together, even, Ravan and Haven did, when Locke wasn't around, and yeah, you should train against everyone, especially someone you viewed as an enemy. Locke and him tussled a lot, even.

But…

"I just don't trust Ravan," he told Haven, once, more than once, even, probably, but that time in particular he remembered. "At all."

His fourteenth birthday was coming up and he and Haven had just returned on a job. Not wanting to be home just yet, but having blown most of their jewels (it was why they were fearful of returning home; their parents wouldn't be too pleased), were hiding out for a few days in Natsu and Happy's old house out in the forest. It had become the children's clubhouse of sorts and they all filtered in and out as they pleased. The other boy had been there, in fact, when they arrived, hiding out from Erza (he too was on thin ice with his guardian), but he and Locke had quickly gotten into an argument over something dumb with the other boy. Ravan and he fought for a bit before the swordsboy ran off. Then it was just Locke and Haven.

They roasted hot dogs over the fire pit outside, the pair did, listening to all the sounds of the forest that surrounded them. It used to scare them some, when they were younger. All the noises brought out by the night. More than once, they'd spooked themselves so badly they all went running through the woods, back to their respective homes.

But they weren't kids anymore.

At least they didn't feel quite like it.

"Trust him with what?" Haven asked with a frown. She was a bit beaten up, from the job, and hadn' been too interested in tussling with the boys that day. She let them fight it out and had only sat there, at the fire pit, waiting for which would join her. "Do you have some sort of big secret, Locke?"

"No. You know what I mean."

"No, I don't."

"I don't," he reiterated, "trust him."

Haven only shrugged though, staring into the flames. "You shouldn't trust anyone."

"I trust my mother. And my father. And Lily. And-"

"They don't count."

"I trust you."

She looked up then, at him, but still only shook her head. "You shouldn't."

They stared at one another for a long few moments before both looking off.

"You shouldn't," she added, "trust anyone. Anyone can hurt you. At least Ravan's upfront about it."

Still, he only shook his head. "He just gives me a bad feeling. He always has."

"It's not like he can beat us. Or will ever be able to." She even smiled, maybe. Or maybe the fire was causing shadows to play tricks on him. "Ravan's not even a real wizard. If it wasn't for Erza, he wouldn't even be allowed in Fairy Tail. I'm not afraid of him. And you shouldn't be either."

"I'm not."

"Then-"

"You don't have to be afraid of someone, Haven, to know that there's nothing good about them. And there's nothing good about Ravan. At all."

But she didn't answer and they had bigger things to figure out, anyways (like how they were going to explain to their parents they'd blown all their jewels on toys and candy). Ravan might be a threat, maybe, but a distant one if he was anything. Haven wasn't worried about him and she frequently insisted Locke not be either.

His whole life wasn't filled with his friends (at non-friend). A good portion of it was, yeah, but he did take jobs on his own. Spend time on his own. He trained with his father a lot too. But a more subdued part of his life, that he didn't bring up a lot (especially around his father) was spent out in the woods. Not at the clubhouse though. Rather, he'd go deep into the woods with another mentor, to train in a different way.

Wendy was the only person he knew that had an extensive knowledge of healing magic. Though a lot of her spells were relegated to Dragon Slayer magic, she assisted him where she could and seemed to even enjoy it a lot. She was gone just as much as a normal mage and he didn't wanna bother her, when she was actually home from a job, but the woman insisted to him that she enjoyed their training.

"The guild will always need a medic," she'd remind him with a grin. "If for some reason I'm not around, let's hope you are, huh?"

He knew he'd never be as good as her at it, but...yeah, he hoped he'd be of help, someday, if he was ever truly needed.

His friends needed him frequently, anyways, out on jobs. Haven had a knack for pushing herself (and them) past limits and boundaries. This led to many medic worthy moments. And regardless of what his father felt, he could grow in both his iron magic and his medical side. They weren't separate. They were connected, within him. That's what mattered.

Even though his father constantly sneered and griped, he figured even the man would have to admit, he wasn't half bad, being who he was currently. He only continued to grow. Mature. Took jobs. Alone and with the others. He tried very hard to always do the right thing. By his friends and his guild.

"What more do you want?" he found himself carping to his father a lot throughout his youth, but especially in those later years as their training seemed to only get more intense and the man seemed out for blood, even, at times. It was that intense. He was always that intense. A lot of the time, Locke felt like his father wanted nothing more than his death. Maybe that was it all along. His father wanted to raise him up, as powerful as can be, just to beat him back down. Destroy him.

Was that it?

No.

He always had to remind himself of that when, whenever he questioned his father oft his, the man only snickered in his own special way, gloating over his fallen son.

"I want," he'd growl at him, though it was through a grin, "you to be stronger, Locke! Stronger than everyone. Do you not want that? Huh? Do you wanna be stronger? Or not?"

It would take a lot, sometimes, but he always forced himself to do it. To shove up. To push up. To growl as loud back at the man as he could, "I do!"

Because if he didn't, he might forget. Because if he didn't, he might miss a step. He might not make it. He might get lost along the way or give up entirely. So long as he yelled it though, each and every time he fell, stumbled, or forgot himself, then he'd be fine. He'd end up back on track. Where he was meant to be.

In those golden years, the only thing that rang true, no matter what, was that he had to keep fighting. If he didn't...if he didn't, then there'd be no one to keep Haven in line.

And they couldn't have that.

* * *

**Five chapters, one for all the kids to get them all aged up (with Marin and Kai being together in one, the twins being covered in Navi's chapter, probably, and then Ajax kind of tacked in between Haven and Marin's stuff). I was going to separate them all into their own one-shots, but they'll probably all have the same feel to them and reference one another, so it's probably best to do it this way. The kids will be spit out somewhere in their late teens at the end of this, but we'll probably go back and more in depth cover some stuff that got glossed over with random one-shots, later. Right now, I'm just trying to race to the last two big stories. All the other stuff can be filled in later, you know? **


	2. Navi

The Dragneel household was, without a doubt, the most hectic of all the children. Natsu and Lucy were a healthy mixture of laid back, yet involved, leading to them not caring much as their daughter grew up if she and her friends hung around a lot. Natsu preferred it even.

He'd never envisioned that. Having a kid. He lived in the moment, Natsu did, and for the most part, that meant having little planning or foresight. It took him a minute, even, to recognize his deeper feelings for Lucy, much less eventually move in with and marry her. They'd never planned on having kids, or at least he hadn't (and he was nearly certain Lucy definitely hadn't), and it was kind of overwhelming when it all sprang up. There was just a lot going on and they were in no way financially ready for that sort of thing. He didn't even feel emotionally ready for it! But Lucy was freaked out which meant he had to pretend to be otherwise. He sucked up any of his emotions (as few as they were) quite well and kind of just faked his confidence and excitement until he made it.

And oh, did he make it.

Navi was great. Perfect. Sure, there was some bumpy roads along the way (he had a lot of learning to do about babies and their needs), but he stumbled his way along as best as he could with Lucy filling in where he was unable. It was the exact way a kid should grow up, he felt. Or at least he tried hard to make it that way.

And for the first few years of her life, he was sure that Navi would agree. It was pretty idealistic. They struggled some, fine, monetarily, but never in a major way. Her parents took jobs, but were never gone for long. And when she got old enough, she even went with them, sometimes. Natsu and Lucy weren't anywhere close to flakes, like most people considered guild wizards. They thought of her first. Always.

Until, well, they had another accident.

A happy one, still. Honest. Blessed. Natsu thought he knew complete, but they were finally all settled, when they had their two twin boys. It was an adjustment, of course, one that wasn't always the most enjoyable, but they were his sons. His boys. They just had to...to...manage, until they got a bit older. Things would be easier when they got a bit older.

Lucy assured them all of that a lot. They seemed to have flipped, at some point, she and Natsu. She'd always been the more levelheaded one, but had a habit of overthinking things. She still did that, she'd always do that, but Lucy became a voice of reason when money grew tighter after the twins were born, the one that always made sure they all understood that, yeah, things were changing, but one day, they'd all calm back down again.

They'd be normal again.

But they wouldn't. Not for Navi at least. Adolescence was already a turbulent time and as she careened towards the more unsteady years of it, there was no chance of it going back to how it was. How could it? For her parents, yeah, their lives up to that point had been jobs, coming home to a kid, and then eventually taking that kid on jobs, maybe. They could now do that again. They'd already been a mom and a dad. They'd always be that. But she'd never been a sister before. She'd never not get to be one again either.

"Navi is well-adjusted," Erza liked to say often of the little girl while Navi, often, liked to avoid the swordswoman. But her words were true, anyways. Most everyone thought so. Out of the most chaotic household had came the best behaved kid. The most respectful kid. The most helpful kid.

"My mother would have loved you, you know," Lucy used to tell her, when she was younger and her mother, only at one child then, had more time for reflection.

Navi favored her father heavily in those days, but sometimes, if he and Happy were off on a job without her mother, she and Lucy would take a trip to Hargeon. She liked it there, Navi did, because she liked to sit and watch the boats come into the harbor. Her mother had her own reasons, but they both enjoyed the port city immensely.

Lucy always got a bit misty eyed there and would tell Navi, occasionally, about things. The past. Not the way her father would loudly proclaim his achievements from days gone by (or at least his best recollection of them; it was usually slanted…), but in a more sentimental way. While her father recalled fights and the key points of big moments, her mother remembered the little things. The day she met so and so, or how she did something or other. Mostly Fairy Tail stuff. She had a lot of memories to share from her more active guild days.

Even more rare though were the times when her mother would whisper about her own mother. Not her father, honestly, that much. Just her mother. Navi knew a lot about the woman. She went with her mother, sometimes, out to the graves of her maternal grandparents, to lay flowers and have a moment of reflection. But it was usually in Hargeon that Lucy would get most nostalgic, even for things that went much farther back than the port city.

They stopped doing that though, as often, when Navi's twin brothers were born. She didn't blame her mother. No more than she blamed her father. Not once she got older, at least. At the time, she could get quite upset by it all. It didn't help that the person she gushed most of these emotions to were Happy, who more often than not riled her up rather than eased her down.

He liked the twins too and, yeah, his life wasn't too different at any incarnation, but he wasn't going to lie to poor Navi. How could he? Things would never be the same again!

It usually got him griped at by Lucy and Natsu, the way he could conflate a situation, but things never went too far. How could they? When Navi was so well adjusted? Short of getting, well, short with her parents from time to time, it was rare that she did much more.

How could she, anyways? They were all gone so much.

That was another thing. When Lucy first found out that she was pregnant again, she and Natsu felt rather uneasy about another mouth to feed being around, but knew they could weather the storm. But two? Two was more than little ridiculous.

One of them were constantly gone while the other had to stay home. With the twins. It was what they worked out, eventually, Natsu and Lucy did. It had been how they managed Navi as well. Someone work, someone stayed with the baby. It was really the only option. Only, now they were having to take as many jobs as they could manage, one returning and one leaving. They tried to both be around, when Navi needed them, but how could they be? With that schedule?

She went out on jobs with her father a lot, at first. He'd always wanted that, anyways. Her to go out on jobs with him. Produce fire for him, honestly, really, but same thing. She didn't mind. Not when she was younger. But as she got older and the other kids stopped having to pal around with their parents as much, she decided she didn't want to either. Not as much at least.

Which Natsu didn't really like, she could tell. He'd always kind of frown at her, when she said she was gonna take off too, but on her own job. With the other kids.

"You sure? Navi?" he'd ask as Happy usually fluttered along beside. "There'll be plenty to do with us!"

He got her with that, at first, but eventually…

It was supposed to go that way. With or without the twins, it was meant to be that way. Navi was her own person and had to grow as one, as a mage too, away from him. She wasn't like Happy. Happy was his own person too, sure, but he needed Natsu. He was dependent on Natsu. Navi was too, for a time, but she was only going to find it less and less appealing, the older she got.

But being gone all the time, with the twins, then getting home, to hang out, and being told no, she had other things to do was...well…

"You're like me now," Lucy said, but she didn't gloat, one night when Navi ditched out on him, last minute, to go on a job with Locke and Haven. "Natsu."

They were both home for once, he and his wife, or at least they were now as she just returned from her one day free of the house drama (in which she sat up at the guild and dealt with it's typical drama) to find him all alone. This was unexpected, considering he, Happy, and Navi were supposed to stay up all night, eating snacks and watching the movie lacrima. Instead, she found Natsu alone in the dark living room, Happy already passed out in his lap, and the twins, thankfully, sleeping.

"What do you mean?" he asked with a bit of a frown as, still in the dark, she only came to sit beside him, down on the floor, where his back was pressed up against the couch. The movie lacrima lay unused before them, on the coffee table. "Luce?"

She only scratched gently behind the snoozing Happy's ears as she said, "Who do you think she was ditching before? To hang out with you? It happens to the best of us."

"We'll do it when she gets back," he informed his wife. "It's a dumb movie anyways. We've seen it before. Hey, I know! I'll go out and buy a new one. One she wants to see. Maybe we'll go pick one out together."

But Lucy only shook her head as, done with the feline, she moved instead to snag the bowl of popcorn off the floor.

"Face it," she told him with her own frown. "Navi's too old for you now."

That was a blunt way of putting it and perhaps not how Navi felt exactly, but the sentiment was the same. She had a lot of reasons to no longer need her father and, as the kids only took bigger and better jobs, it began to feel less like she ever would. Or at least he felt that way. Their days of doing nothing all day were over, it seemed.

But where was the time, huh? Navi would have argued that, had her father ever argued with her, really, over anything, but especially that it was her skirting their relationship. He was gone so much. He had to be. And when he wasn't, yeah, maybe she could stay around more, but even when she did, she didn't get to spend that time with him. No.

Because if her mother was gone, then Navi was the one that had to worry about them. Not Natsu and Happy (although, yeah, sure, them too), but rather her brothers. Iggy and Lucky.

Haven had more than cautioned her, before their birth, about how they would change her life. Ruin her life. And Navi believed her to a certain extent. It helped too that Kai, Ravan's younger brother, was always around to provide irrefutable evidence that, yeah, little siblings sucked. Hard. But Haven and Ravan had been given a luxury Navi never received.

They were little kids too, when their siblings were born. She wasn't. She was old enough to help out. She was expected to help out. And she wanted to help out, honest, she did, but as they got older and she got better at it, sometimes it just felt like...well…

She was a kid too. Her mother seemed to understand this. When it was just her, home alone with the boys, Lucy tried hard to care for them on her own. Or rely on the help of anyone other than Navi. But Natsu and Happy, when they were left alone with the boys, thought of it as a team effort. Everything they did was a team effort. And if Navi was around, even better. More help. But somehow, like with anything that wasn't a direct battle with an enemy, Natsu was pretty lax on true help.

Navi felt early on the pressures of having children. The tension of the late rent, the constant jobs, all part of a mage's life. But add in two crying kids that, please, Navi, Hap and I just got back from a job, could you take care of them? I'll fix 'em bottles and you just change 'em, huh? Oh, hey, how does this formula stuff work again? Ah, Navi, you know everything, you know that? It's like Luce isn't even gone.

That's what it felt like.

Often, Navi played mother to the boys in the house (which, yeah, did include Natsu and Happy) until her mother returned. If she griped or complained or voiced anything about this, anything at all, something would have changed. Something would have been different.

But she was 'well-adjusted'.

Which, in kids, seemed to just be a code for compliant and reserved. That's what Erza really meant. Because that's what she really wanted, out of Ravan and Kai. Or any child. Natsu and Lucy got it, whether they recognized (much less wanted) it or not. Natsu would have definitely changed, if she ever told him she was feeling overwhelmed. Or even a little whelmed. He thought that Navi liked helping care for her siblings. She didn't complain much, anyways, when she was asked to help.

But how could she? He was right; he was tired. And so was her mother. And Happy too. Navi took jobs also, but not nearly as draining ones as they did. She felt like it was partially her duty to help out with the little boys.

Even if, at times, it got in the way of what she wanted to do.

So yeah, sometimes, yes, she did ditch out on her father, when something better than hanging around the house where, if the twins so much as made a noise, she would feel responsible for going to tend to them. It had been fun, when she was younger, having a father that was kind of irresponsible and a lot reckless, but as someone now conscientious over the well-being of her twin brothers, she could understand why her mother had always seemed like a party pooper.

This grew in Navi as the boys, well, grew. Babies weren't babies for long and, soon enough, Jude (who they all called Lucky) and Iggy were people too. She watched it with the same joy that everyone in the house did. They always had something of personalities, the twins did. Even when they were small.

"Just like you did," Lucy would tell her with a smile, sometimes. "When you were their age."

Lucky was always more attention seeking than his brother. From the time they were babies, he not only wanted the near constant attention of whoever was in the room, but also would get quite upset if it was showed, instead, to his twin. Even if it was only Happy around, he wanted the cat to give him his full attention.

This was usually find with Iggy though. Either to counterbalance his brother, or perhaps due simply to his brother's antics, very early on, he seemed more independent. He didn't mind if his brother was out of the room (Lucky seemed to constantly need to at least see his brother, if not be touching him, just to feel secure) and, as he became a toddler and then some, seemed to like it better, even, when they had to be apart. Frequently, if Lucy and Natsu were both out on jobs, the boys were divided up (it was just too much to expect someone to babysit both at the same time; other than Mirajane, who'd always dreamed of such a thing). Lisanna used to babysit Iggy a lot, when he was little, with Wendy usually being the one to get Lucky, but this was flipped quickly. Though he would whine for his brother, Lucky seemed more more at ease with Lisanna, given she had a son around their age, Ajax, who could at least distract him.

Both boys though enjoyed it best when Mirajane was their babysitter. She'd always wanted boys (not as opposed to her girls; rather in conjunction) and definitely enjoyed babysitting them more than most would. Laxus, her husband, not nearly as much. He grumbled a lot, but what could he do? If he'd long given up on reigning in Haven, he'd never had too good a leash on his demon. And it kept her from whining to him about having more kids, at least.

Their favorite person though, in the entire world, was Navi. They loved their sister. Both of them. Very much. Maybe not as much as their mother (they seemed rather clingy to her), but certainly more than most others. As they got older and learned to wait for their parents to return from jobs, they also frequently worried about when she would come back too.

She felt rather attached to them as well. It was a lot, at first, but she just loved them so much, both of them, that she only buried any resentment over the whole thing rather deeply in herself. Who could she complain to? Her overburdened mother? Or frequently gone or sleeping father? No. They were her brothers and that made them her responsibility too.

Not to say that she didn't break sometimes. It was a lot of weight to bare.

One night, when the boys were about three, they were especially pushing her. Lucy had been gone for a few days, Natsu and Happy weren't really helping the situation, and the twins had been throwing fits all day. They missed their mother, honestly, and more or less fed off one another. When one was in a sour mood over something, it was rather easy to have the other fall into it as well. And though Navi felt like they were being useless, Natsu and Happy were mostly just tired from spending nearly the whole day trying to keep the boys in a good mood. It wasn't their fault they were failing at it.

Navi got real upset though, around the twins bedtime, when they both refused to be read to, laid down, or just flat out ordered to shut up and go to bed. They only yelled right back at her and it wasn't fair. At all. She didn't want to be there with them. Any of them. The boys were in open rebellion, Natsu and Happy had declared no intelligence, and she never wanted to be their ruler. Any of them. At all.

She wasn't there mom. She wanted her own then too!

Navi left, not even saying anything really, as Natsu called after her. It was lost, anyways, in the fact the boys were now actively throwing their toys at Happy who was actively throwing them right back. He couldn't deal with her, the slayer couldn't; not when he had that on his hands.

She went to the only pace all the children went, when they wanted to be alone. The clubhouse. None of the others were there that night, which she was glad for. Kicking a sleeping bag until it unrolled, she fell face first into it and just cried for a bit. A long bit. She did that sometimes, when the others weren't there to make fun of her. She was nearly certain Haven never cried, not about anything, and she didn't want the other girl to know that she did. She was already weak, Navi was. She didn't wanna lower her stock even lower.

The others were around, the next morning. Haven, Ravan, and Kai. The younger boy was who woke her, as he loudly spoke about something or other while the two older only growled, frequently, for him to shut up. They didn't even want him there. Ravan had planned to leave him with Marin, but she was sick. That was the only reason he'd been invited.

"What are you doing here?" Haven asked with a frown when they found Navi inside, the girl hoping her cheeks weren't stained with the previous night's tears. "Did you go out on a job?"

"No," Navi was quick to defend. "I just didn't want to be at home."

This made perfect sense to Haven. And Ravan felt that on a meta level. They were there to practice, anyways, and after setting their backpacks in the little house, they went back outside for that. Kai though, only grinned at the still rather sleepy Navi, rushing over to where they kept all the food.

"Here," he said, coming back over to her with the last apple. "You can have it."

He even rubbed it only his shirt.

When his back was turned, Navi dumped some of her water bottle over the fruit.

"Where's Locke?" he asked as he sat down on the floor, right beside her sleeping bag. Unlike his brother, Kai didn't creep Navi out; he just exhausted her, honestly, for the most part.

"How should I know?"

"Well, if he's not with Haven, where is he?"

"I mean, Kai, he does kind of do things other than be around her, you know," Navi said slowly. "Like you're not with Marin right now."

"That's because she's sick. Not because I didn't want to be."

"Well-"

"If he's not with you, he's not with Haven, and he's not out on a job, does he exist?"

This felt pretty existential, so Navi left it alone, instead only taking a bit out of her apple. Staring out the window, she watched Haven and Ravan tussling for a long while before saying, "I should probably go back home."

"Or stay here. And hang out with me." Kai was enthused by the idea. He liked Navi a whole bunch. Or, at least, he liked her more than Haven. And Ravan when he was being a jerk because he was around Haven. Navi was his number one that day. "We can play a board game!"

"We can't," Navi told him simply, "play a board game."

They had some there, in the clubhouse, and had more than once attempted, as a group, the feat of completing one. It went predictably.

"I have to go home," she added, but she didn't sound too happy about it and when she only frowned down at the ground, Kai scooted closer.

"What's wrong?" he asked with his own frown. Being friends with Marin, he was more than used to the downs in life from a friend perspective. Marin was constantly in the throes of those. "Why do you look so sad?"

"Nothing."

"You can tell me." Kai beamed brightly at her. "I won't tell anyone."

Navi had her doubts, but still, glancing at him, she just shrugged some. "I really don't wanna go home and deal with them."

"With who?"

"My brothers."

He nodded, the younger boy did, as if understandingly. He should understand, anyways. He too was a bothersome younger brother.

"Sometimes Ravan hides from me too," he sighed. "Is your mom hiding from 'em too?"

"What do you mean?"

"She was at the hall when me and Ravan got there. Her and Erza just got back. I was happy, 'cause I love Erza and all, but Ravan was pretty mad about it, 'cause now she's going to wonder why he hasn't gone on a job in two weeks. Your mom was getting breakfast. Which I was gonna get too, before Ravan saw Erza and got scared-"

"My mom's home?"

"She was," he agreed with a nod. "But- Hey, where are you going?"

Back home. Where she was, hopefully, no longer the person in charge.

She found her mother there, in the midst of falling back into the morning routine. The boys, after their night of running the place the night before, were more than a bit grumpy and Happy just kept whining to Lucy about how they'd hurt him with their blocks (to which she replied some rather rude insults right back), but Navi was most concerned with her father. He was sitting on the couch when she came in and eyed her heavily when she walked through the door.

"Oh, Navi," Lucy greeted around the barrage of complaints she was receiving from the three others. "I thought you were in bed. Did you stay out all night? Were you on a job?"

She only stared at her father though, waiting for the man to bust her. To say something. Anything. About how she'd run out the night before. But he didn't mention it. And Happy was too caught up in his own drama (the twins were now saying _he_ was the one who threw the blocks and, though this was true, it was full out war by that point; he hadn't thrown the first stone) to say anything about her.

"Navi was with her friends," Natsu said simply and Lucy accepted this. She kind of had to. The twins vs. Happy was really heating up.

Navi didn't know why her father covered for her, but she really didn't want to find out either. She was still kind of angry at him and Happy. He wanted to talk, she could tell, but after hugging her mother, Navi left for the guild to grab a job and escape for a bit herself, knowing by the time she returned the man would have more than forgotten all about the issue.

It was becoming more commonplace in those days, for the kids to take those alone then. Without one another. Still, it wasn't the same as when Haven and Locke were with her. Considering she mostly used jobs to get away from home, her passion wasn't anywhere near theirs. That was what made it fun. The way they could get so invested and into it. Alone, she had none of that.

Sometimes she wondered if she even really wanted to be a guild mage.

She doubted it, honestly. In any other family, she probably wouldn't even be a mage. It was expected of her, being the daughter of the Salamander, his only child for so long, to be something, anything, in Fairy Tail. But he had other heirs now. The boys could be the greatest mages alive. The toughest. The strongest. The most willing to throw down in the dumb guildhall.

Navi wasn't even sure if she ever really wanted to be a Fairy. She mostly just wanted to hang out with her dad, when she was a kid. Considering he was always off on jobs, that meant being a wizard. Like him. Now though, she wished that she had something else, anything else, to throw her life into. The others could have the guild life; it just wasn't for her.

But how could she say this to her parents? Her father's whole life was Fairy Tail and her mother had betrayed her entire being, back when she was young, just to get there. To make it there. To Fairy Tail.

What was Navi without the place?

"Nothing," she answered Locke one day up when at the hall when she and Haven approached, asking about her plans for the day. At thirteen, Navi had more or less dominion over her own life. Her mother liked for her to inform her if she left town, but short of that, she had a pretty lengthy leash.

"Then," the blonde took over (Locke was not direct enough for Haven's tastes), "come with us. We're gonna go slay a monster."

Navi only tossed jewels on the table she was at, to cover her meal and tip, before rising to follow. "Okay," left her lips, but she wasn't too enthralled by the idea. Not like Haven and Locke, who were already arguing over directions. Eventually she bored of this and only sighed, informing them both that she knew where to go and what train to take; they didn't have to get so upset about it.

Which was fine. Haven was already upset at Locke about something else anyways.

It would be storming, quite heavily, when they returned a week later. The closest place to get out of the weather was Navi's apartment and, as they raced one another through the slick streets, like the kids they still very much were, it was with taunts of just who had been the most important on the job they were returning victorious from. The words were still on their lips too, as they shook off the storm in Navi's living room. Her family was all home, but none of them felt too awkward about it. Though Lucy grimaced some at the mud, Natsu was just as quickly leading the kids to the kitchen (the one good thing about Locke was that he could put some food back too; the slayer liked the competition) though Navi was stopped by her brothers launching themselves at her.

"Navi!" Iggy nuzzled his head into her stomach. "Lucky's mean."

"Am not!" And he'd jumped into her arms, her easily catching him. Staring at her with bright brown eyes, he challenged, "Iggy's the one that's bein' mean!"

"You could tell your sister you missed her, you know," their mother pointed out, but meh.

It kind of went without saying, didn't it?

The boys drug her off to their bedroom, at least for a minute, so she could decide just who needed to clean up the mess in there (they were both very adamant that it was the others toys). It didn't take her long to convince them both that it was a healthy mixture and they should both pitch in (the four-year-olds were still rather hesitant to agree, but if their sister said so…) and head back to the kitchen to find Lucy grumbling, but only slightly, over how much Natsu and Locke were eating (and Happy too), while Haven used everyone's slight distraction to explain in grand detail how she'd been, once more, the only one of value on the job.

"Navi." Natsu grinned up from where he and Locke were stacking sandwiches high. "Are you hungry?"

She shook her head no and he was already back to arguing with Locke over whose sandwich looked the best while Haven glared, annoyed the guys were more into that than her story. Navi slid into a chair at the table, watching with a bit of disinterest. She might have sat there forever, hardly listening, hardly caring, had she not felt her mother's eyes on her. Lucy had given up on stopping the bizarre food competition that was brewing in her kitchen and, once she had her daughter's eyes, only nodded out of the room.

"Can you come help me with something?" she asked simply and, as thunder boomed overhead (it served it's purpose, getting Haven to finally shut up as she only glared out a window), Navi nodded back at her mother.

They had to check on the twins who were kind of cleaning up their room by that point, maybe, or they might have just been making an even huger mess, no one could say for certain, but they were too invested in it either way to notice the thunder and lightning outside. Everyone in the house was rather thankful for that. Neither liked it much. Who wanted tears?

"Sorry," Lucy apologized when, one in her and her husband's bedroom, she only went to sit on the end of the bed. "I just wanted out of the kitchen and figured you did too."

Navi frowned some, but did agree. She had.

Going to sit beside her mother, they both just stared over at the dresser before them, Navi's eyes tracing the assortment of framed photos that sat there.

"I'm glad you did well on your job," her mother congratulated, bumping their elbows gently together. "You guys are getting pretty consistent. Are you vying for S-Class or something?"

Navi paled at the thought.

Still, Lucy only continued.

"It's a lot sometimes though, isn't it?" the celestial mage asked with a pulled face. "Everything, I mean, I guess, but I remember when I first started taking jobs so seriously. When I first got in Fairy Tail. It's exhausting. Maybe not for you guys. You've been training for this your whole lives."

"It's fine," Navi assured her mother. "I mean, yeah, it's a lot sometimes, but-"

"It's okay to take breaks, you know. From it." She smiled that time, Lucy did, looking up now. "It was hard for me, I guess, because I had to, you know? Work. Get jewels. It was my first time doing that. Earning my own way. Overwhelming in its own way. But you're still a kid, Navi. It's not all about jobs all the time. You have fun sometimes too, don't you?" When her daughter nodded, Lucy grinned and said, "Even when you need it, when you have to do it, you know, work for your own way, you can always come back here. You know that, huh? Natsu and I didn't have anywhere to fall back on, other than the guild, but when you get older, I just… I want you to know you can always come home."

"I know," Navi agreed. Her eyes landed, finally, on a picture of them before the twins, when it was still just her, running around with her father and Happy in Hargeon. Her mother wasn't in the photo, but it was surely just because she was taking it. She was always there to prop the rest of them up, even if it was just from the background. "Mom."

For all the chaos of the Dragneel house, it could get rather quiet sometimes, like it would in the next few days. Natsu, Lucy, and Happy all left on a job together and decided to leave the twins with Lisanna. Her son, Ajax, was more than thrilled at the idea of them spending the night and Navi, who dropped them off there, only told the woman that she could come get them at any time, if they got to be too much.

"You should have fun," Lisanna told her simply, with a smile, as the twins only rushed right into the apartment. Bickslow was home, helping Ajax start on the fort to rule all forts (what was a sleepover without one?) and they wanted to give their own input. "Navi. The whole place to yourself. I lived for that, when Mira and Elfman were both out."

She didn't feel like she was living, really, much at all, but it did give Navi a chance to be somewhere Haven and Locke, hopefully, wouldn't show up. There was a chance of it, sure, but she was banking on them training the next few days. Gajeel was back from a job of his own and they hadn't done that in awhile, the two of them go off with him. They seemed to like it.

The house was a mess and Navi had promised to clean, at least a bit, while her parents were away. Natsu told her it was fine; he liked it that way, but Lucy only glared daggers at him for the suggestion and, well, yeah, Navi was gonna clean up the place.

It was while she was dusting that it happened. While running a rag over her mother's desk in her parent's bedroom that she accidentally knocked some of the papers off. No big deal. It was just one of her mother's stories. She knew all about those. Lucy was constantly writing something. Or at least she used to be. When Navi was little, she liked to read to her little short stories she'd made, but in recent years, well, everyone was just too busy. That was all.

But as she tried to get the papers back organized, she noticed that they weren't a story at all. Or at least not a fictional one. As she tried to get each one back in their proper order, she had to read, just a bit, and noticed it seemed more to be a written out account of something. For a second, she panicked, thinking she was, like, reading her mother's diary or something (did old people keep those too?), but this wasn't the case. No. It was far too detailed and cold. Less a collection of thoughts and, rather, a detailed account. It didn't take long for Navi to realize it was about the Grand Magic Games.

She'd heard stories about that all her life, after all. And, as she sat down at the desk, now enraptured, she took note of the documentation which felt far more orderly and probably accurate than the secondhand tales she'd heard.

It didn't take much searching to find them. They were on a shelf, with her other half finished writings. Folders full of the same thing. Different, separate jobs that Navi had grown up hearing about, all written out, analytically. Basic. Just the facts.

The other night, before bed, Natsu had been talking about his match against the Twin Dragons, at the games, remembering mostly how Gajeel had ditched out on him. He told the twins all about it (or what he recalled) before bed. Maybe, having listened to his horrible retelling, Lucy had gone and...what? Pulled out her far closer to reality account? That she wrote down? Before? In the past?

It felt so real then, to hear about it in that way. And yet still so bare boned. Distant. Like looking at a story from top down rather than through the eyes of an actual participant.

Navi didn't know what came over her. At all. But once she started, she couldn't stop. She'd read through the entirety of her mother's account of the Grand Magic Games which, of course, bled into the dragon fights and, oh, wow, she'd never written before, Navi hadn't, but it just felt like it needed it. Page by page, side by side, to take a new sheet of paper out and slowly write out, maybe, less of a comprehensive outline, but rather a full fledged story.

It's what she spent the three days her parents were away doing. Not only, of course. She did clean up and even went to the guild for a bit, one day, just to check with Lisanna that the twins were fine. They were, of course, as Ajax had convinced his Uncle Laxus to let him and his two friends go stay at his house (this had more to do with the fact his Aunt Mirajane was taken by the idea immediately) and the boys, who Mira was happy to serve juices up at the bar, waved off their sister's offer to come home.

When she saw Haven, Locke, and Ravan, prepared to go out once more (the latter of two spending most of their time over at the request board glaring at one another rather than the jobs), Navi bowed out from their offer to do something with them.

"You have," Haven asked with a bit of a frown, "plans?"

She did have those from time to time, Navi did. She had other friends, as horrible a crime as that was, outside of the guild. A concept that eluded the others for the most part.

"Sort of," the girl offered and Haven glared at her then, but Ravan and Locke were close to ruining their job before they left on it, so maybe it was better if she only had two others to run, rather than three.

Navi hadn't felt nervous to show something to her parents in a long while. But, as the time ticked away and she knew they'd be back any day, she did feel nervous creep up inside of her. At the sound of them keying into the apartment, all the way from their bedroom, where she'd been diligently writing, she felt almost sick to her stomach.

"Navi," Lucy called out as Happy only flew straight through the house, wanting to dive bomb the girl in greeting. "Are you home?"

"Of course she is, Luce," Natsu snickered as, coming in, he followed right behind Hap. "She's- What are you doing? Navi?"

"Nothing. I was just-"

"Navi's writing a story." Happy had taken to landing on the desk. "And it's already better than anything Lucy's slaved away for, all these years. I'd bet everything."

"Shut it, cat." Still, Lucy came in as well, heading right to the bedroom. "What have you been writing, Navi?"

She only gulped and it wasn't what they were expecting, her parents and Happy weren't, when they sat down in the living room to listen to it. Navi was nervous and it was rather obvious, but they were all receptive and ready to listen. Until Lucy realized what she was reading.

"Wow!" Natsu whistled. "It's like I was there."

"Me too," Happy agreed after she finished reading about the harrowing labyrinth the protagonists had gone through. "Well, up until that big maze. I dunno much about that."

Lucy only frowned. "Navi, were you going through my stuff?"

"No!" And she hadn't been. Honest. "I was just cleaning and-"

"Don't accuse her of stealing your story, Luce," Natsu complained to which Happy, who was in the woman's lap, took to nodding up at her.

"You could never craft such a great piece of art," he agreed. "You're just not gifted like Navi."

But her eyes stayed on her daughter's, Lucy's did, until, finally, she smiled.

"I love it," she told Navi who, letting out a long, slow sigh, was quick to grin as well. "And I want to hear more of it."

Bowing her head to her parents, she went on, feeling far more confident now as she spoke. In the house typically ruled by bedlam, it was quiet then, save her voice and the slowly catching on tones of Natsu (Happy played it dumb right up to the end), but it felt just as full as it always did. It always would. Home was home. No matter what.


	3. Marin and Kai

In all the perfect storms, the idea that the most obnoxious child in the world would some how find the loneliest, the friendship of Kai and Marin felt pretty fated. Neither had ever had that before. Someone else. They both had overbearing siblings who mostly lived to torment them and felt a disconnect due to it for the other kids around them. Back in his village, Kai was far from popular with the other children and Marin was mostly the older kid at the guild's punching bag. Had Ravan arrived at the hall alone or Haven stayed an only child, neither probably would have ever had a friend. A true friend. A best friend.

But the stars aligned just once for each person and they felt like theirs had been used up on making sure that they somehow met. Neither one was pissed about it either. What was better than having a friend? Nothing.

His life was changing anyways, on his arrival to Fairy Tail, but it completely changed the course of Marin's. She was no longer expected to just trail along behind her sister. No. Now she had someone other than Haven, Locke, and Navi to decide what she'd do that day. Not herself. Not yet. But Kai was much more considerate than the others.

And he never called her names.

Their interests didn't transect often, but neither had too big an issue with doing what the other wanted and, since Marin usually made very few suggestions, it was mostly his ideas anyways. Kai was down for that.

Unlike their older siblings and friends, neither Marin nor Kai seemed too interested in magic for the most part. He half assed some plant shit, mostly just so Erza would build him a garden (or was it the other way around?) and Marin had gotten a lacrima shoved in her and was a slayer now, basically, which was super cool. She didn't do much with it, but Kai like the anticipation of just _when_ she would.

It kind of sucked though, both would admit, as their siblings aged up and fell into steady guild work. Though Haven could be a huge brat and Ravan was more than a jerk at times, they still did miss them. Part of the fun of Marin and Kai finding one another was escaping the dictatorship of their siblings. Now Haven and Ravan could hardly find time to berate them and, well, it just felt like they were getting cheated.

"Perhaps you should get serious about your magic then," Erza would gripe, quite frequently, to both the children. "Then this wouldn't be an issue. You too could go on jobs and hardly notice the others absences."

Which was all good in theory, but in execution?

"It's too much work," Kai complained quite frequently as Marin just went along with him in most every scenario. "Who has time to learn magic? When you got such important things to do?"

His list of important things was very long. At the tippy top was making sure that Erza and Marin both were pleased with him. A tall order. Right beneath that was care for his garden. Then there was his need for fishing related activities to be filled. He liked to spend time with Elfman, who was very busy trying to teach him how to be a man. Oh, and he needed bunches of brotherly bonding time with Ravan. Bunches. Then, somewhere way below all of that, far down towards the bottom, was his sense of stress over his lack of prowess in the magical realm.

"I've yet," Evergreen told him one day when the boy was hanging around her apartment, "to ever see you do anything important."

Kai liked Evergreen. A lot. And he thought that Elfman was the manliest man around! It helped that they seem to be Marin's favorite of her aunts and uncles. The pair frequently found themselves over with the couple. Every time he entered the place though, Evergreen always cautioned Kai and only Kai on being very careful; if he broke something, she would not be pleased.

A frequent state for the woman, he figured, so it wasn't that big of a deal if he did or didn't.

"I do important stuff all the time," he complained slightly though most of his attention was on digging through the couch cushions with Marin. Elfman said whatever they found, they could keep (It saved him from having to clean under there). By that point, they'd already amassed, like, at least five jewels and a button. "Magic just doesn't make the cut, is all."

He figured Marin felt much the same. At least, she rarely told him anything about wanting to get better at her magic. She was a water slayer and that was cool and all. She'd defeated a ghost, before, maybe (he was growing older every day and was beginning to suspect some trickery there), but the point was that she was super strong. Seriously. So strong. He just knew it.

Erza said that he was just immature though and very childish. He didn't like when she said this and, yeah, he knew that it was magic that would impress the woman, but he just wasn't as into it as the others.

"Maybe," she conceded frequently, "you are just a late bloomer."

Very late.

Another thing that she always seemed so disappointed in was his lack of directional ability. As in, the boy could take five steps from the guildhall and not figure out how to get back to it. Everyone seemed to think this was some sort of ruse, him over exaggerating for attention. But it wasn't. Honest. He truly just wasn't good with it. Directions. He'd never been good at it.

"I believe you, Kai," Mrs. Master lamented with him frequently. Mirajane loved Kai, in a certain kind of way. He was just so helpless and hapless, and yet optimistic for some unknown reason. He'd lost everything, but just seemed grateful, honestly, to be there. In Fairy Tail. Mirajane connected to that sentiment deeply. Not to mention, him being around gave Marin something to do other than whine under her mother's feet constantly about how mean the older kids were. "You just get lost sometimes, huh?"

Try all the time.

"Maybe it's mental?" Kai heard one night. He was spending the night over at Marin's other aunt and uncle's place, Lisanna and Bickslow. He, Marin, and Ajax were snoozing in sleeping bags in the living room while the seith and his wife spoke softly in their bedroom. Only, he wasn't sleeping, Kai wasn't. He'd gotten up to use the bathroom and heard them, in there, talking about how he had, well, an...incident that day, in the market. While everyone else was focused elsewhere, he kind of got distracted by this cool looking display in a window and Marin was already holding Ajax's hand and carrying a bag, which meant Kai was left to his own devices and...he might have panicked a bit, when he noticed they were all lost in the crowd.

Mr. Bickslow found him soon enough and it was all okay, but apparently, it was a topic of discussion that night between the man and his wife.

"Like the kid's loony?" Bickslow cackled as Kai only frowned, paused there, outside their closed bedroom door. He knew he shouldn't do that, eavesdrop, but he couldn't help it.

"No." Lisanna sounded annoyed. "Like...I dunno. Like he really just gets turned around because of some sort of, I dunno, trauma? Or something? Erza won't even let him walk home by himself. Isn't that ridiculous?"

Considering both she and the seith had spent the majority of their childhoods without adult super vision, any suggestion from an authority figure at that age would seem so.

"Laxus even lets Marin do that now," Lisanna went on. "And you know how freaked he is, constantly, about her."

He was. The slayer might favor his oldest heavily (to point it was hard to miss it), but his baby was just that; a baby. He treated Marin like she couldn't do anything for herself. If she were any other child, perhaps with just an ounce of self-reliance, things would be completely different. But she wasn't. Marin didn't seem to care what she did, or how little of it she did, so long as the people she was doing it with weren't mean buttheads like Haven.

She didn't care that she wasn't allowed to go on jobs. Who wanted to go on those? Not her. It didn't bother her that Haven and the older kids roamed the city freely. Who wanted to risk being captured by your deranged grandfather? Not her, not again. No. Did it bother her that she was still not allowed to stay home by herself, even for a second, and we still being shipped over to her aunts and uncles frequently or forced to sit up at the boring bar and watch her parents work? Nope. Not one bit.

Marin went with the flow.

Laxus was beginning to flow more towards some freedoms though. Like the walking home thing.

"Straight," he told her with a heavy gaze one day, up at the bar. "home. You know the way, don't you?":

"Nope," Kai said with a shake of his head.

"Yes," Marin giggled into her palm.

Laxus had Freed trail them the first few times, but eventually, gave in. Marin could get herself home just fine. She was well-known to be the local Master's daughter, the Thunder God, Raijin, Master Laxus Dreyar who was practically a wizard saint, he felt.

No one was gonna bother her.

At least he thought.

As with all things, the longer they went on, the more relaxed with the idea people get and Laxus slowly began to allow Kai and Marin the same dominion as their siblings. So long as they stayed together. They had far more strict rules that went along with it though and were only allowed to go a few places. Erza's house, Marin's house, the park, the guild, and Elf and Ever's place. That was it. Those locations all lined up perfectly and Laxus felt like, if something ever happened, he'd easily be able to get to them anyways.

But in his assumptions, he forgot one major factor; Kai was in no way predictable.

Marin and Kai were heading back from the park to Marin's home when it happened. They were just walking along, talking about how they'd get something to eat there and then go see if her Uncle Elf was home, when Kai just got a real sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. There weren't many people around that day (it was rather hot out; the nasty, sticky kind) but enough so that it wasn't too weird when a strange man started walking along behind them. He was following them. Kai didn't know why he could tell, he was usually super unobservant about those sorts of things, but he noticed it then. He was about to say something to Marin about it when, suddenly, the guy rushed at them, still from behind, barreling into the pair and knocking them over.

"Give," he threatened, eyes dark as he stood over them, "me your jewels. Now."

In their attempts to teach the children safety lessons, no one thought much about teaching them to not go about flashing all their jewels and, well, Kai had been more than a bit braggy at the ice cream cart in the park (Erza had given him some jewels for dinner that night, as she planned for him to eat at the hall without her; Ravan had this same idea and, well, Kai just neglected to mention it to either), and the man had no doubt overheard them. He stank of alcohol, the man did (considering the children spent all their days up at a bar, they were more than a bit versed in that) and his eyes just looked crazy. Not like cool Mr. Bickslow crazy. Just crazy. Unfocused.

From his pocket, he produced a knife and it was just all so scary. Very scary. Kai only laid there, terrified, and he wanted Erza. Or Ravan. Badly. He needed them.

So he ran. To find them. Stumbling over himself, he ran away, fast, far, not even thinking about Marin. He heard her call for him, but he didn't care. He just ran and ran and ran and ran and now he was lost, in the city, and he ran some more, because he had to find home, had to find the guildhall, and he was so tired of running, but he was also super lost and he'd left Marin, all alone, and he was such a coward and a loser and...and…

Marin wasn't nearly as helpless as her friend. Knife or no knife, he was little more than a vagrant who was already unstable on his feet. One blast of water and he was knocked over, knife washed away from him and Marin assumed Kai would run back to the guildhall, but when she got there, he wasn't there.

Laxus kept trying to look her over for injuries, of which she obviously had no, but Marin was only worried for her friend.

"We'll find him," Mirajane assured her, but as the day only got later and later, it seemed less and less likely.

It was like a game to the older kids, who called out for him as they raced through the streets. Haven threatened that if she found him first, she'd beat him up for leaving her sister, which made the other kids want to find him even more, because that didn't seem fair.

Most everyone helped out. Calling out his name as they scoped out the city, knowing the boy couldn't have gotten far.

But he could have.

He left Marin, Kai did, and he felt terrible about it. Absolutely horrible. How could he go back home, back to the guild, after just leaving her there? He tried to get back to that spot, where he'd last seen her, but he couldn't do that either and he was just a loser. An absolute loser. He couldn't face Erza or Ravan or Master again. Not Elf. Or Evergreen. Mrs. Master.

And how could he look at Marin, knowing that he'd left her to fend for herself?

He was crying some, like a baby, like the big baby he was, as he walked through the forest and tried to figure out what he'd do with his life now. Get some fishing poles, obviously, and just live off the land. Out there in the wilderness. You could never get lost if your home was the great wide open!

Still...he'd miss them. All of them. But how could he go home? He couldn't. It sucked, but it was just the truth. He had to accept it.

Finding a river, in his exhaustion, he only cupped some of the water up to his mouth and then laid down beside the stream and conked out for a bit.

That was where Natsu and Laxus' noses led them once night had fallen, right to where the boy was curled up snoozing. Laxus frowned at the sight, but Natsu only went to shake him awake.

"Hey, buddy," he whispered as the boy only blinked up at him. "Were ya missin'?"

Kai wanted to tell him no. That he was running away. To apologize to the Master, who was glaring over the man's shoulder, for losing Marin. To Elfman who he could hear calling out for him too, somewhere else in the forest, for not being a man. To Erza who was no doubt looking for him as well, for being such a screw up. To Ravan for not being a good brother. And to Marin for being a horrible, crummy coward.

He was a coward.

Instead, he only nodded as his eyes filled with tears. He was. He was missing.

Natsu carried him back to the guildhall as the search was called off. Erza was waiting there for him, arms crossed over her chest and Ravan at her side, looking much the same. As Natsu dropped him before the woman, the slayer only patted him on the head as Kai couldn't raise his eyes to meet the woman's.

"Let's," she told him icily, "go home."

Kai only followed, being forced to hold her hand, but did catch the table where the other kids were sitting all together. Locke and Navi looked empathetic towards him, but Haven only gave him her darkest gaze and ran a thumb across her neck, signaling his demise.

Marin, unfortunately, didn't seem to be around.

Perhaps it was for the best.

"I can't believe you, Kai," Ravan started in as they approached the house. "You just left Marin? All on her own? What kind of guy does that? Huh? You're such a-"

"Go," Erza remarked simply, "wash up, Ravan. Then go to bed."

"But-"

"Now."

He glared at his brother, but still, marched off dutifully.

"Are you gonna punish me? Erza?" Kai asked as the pair only stood out on the front porch step. "I deserve it. I-"

"Why did you run away, Kai?"

"Because I got scared."

"From home, I meant," she corrected. "I understand that you were fearful of the man, that you ran because of that. By why were you in the forest? You knew that wasn't the way home, surely."

He nodded some, still having his gaze fixed on the ground below. "'cause I couldn't come home. I got so lost and...and… I knew you'd be mad at you."

"I'm not mad at you."

"You're not?"

"I'm disappointed."

"It's the same thing." He sniffled then, but had long run out of tears. "I'm just not good, Erza. At anything. I can't fight, I can't find my way home, I can't even runaway right! I'm sorry."

She let out a deep sigh then and, slowly, bent down so that she and the boy could stare one another in the eyes.

"Right now," she told him simply, "I am just glad that you are here. Safe. We can talk about everything else later. Yes?"

He nodded and she reached out to gently pat his shaggy hair, but Kai didn't feel any better. Not even after eating dinner.

After Erza sent him off to bed, he only fell into the bottom bunk and hoped to find some rest.

"You're such a baby."

Ravan hung over the side of the bunk to glare in at him. "You know that?"

When Kai only buried his head in his pillow, Ravan huffed some.

"But you shouldn't run away. And make people worry about you. Don't you know that you made Erza upset? Don't do it again." Falling back into his own pillow, Ravan added, "You big baby."

The next morning was worse, somehow. Erza marched him down to the guild bright and early to apologize to Master Laxus for having him use his guild to look for the boy and to Marin for abandoning her.

He didn't know which Dreyar was worse.

"I'm gonna murder you," Haven threatened him as he approached the table her father was seated at, reminding him of the Dreyar he should have feared all along. She was there too, explaining to Laxus why she should be able to take a job without dumb Locke (they'd had a fallen out the night before; apparently, he didn't agree with her assertion that Kai deserved the gallows, go figure), but took time out of her busy day to torment the less fortunate. The heart of a true mage. "Kai. So you better just go back to Erza, you stupid-"

"Haven, shut up." The slayer wasn't in the mood. "And go away. You're not going anywhere without Locke."

It was just as she feared.

She was just going to _have to_ make up with the other kid.

Gross.

As she slunk off to go try, in a last ditch effort, to pitch the idea to her mother, the boy faced him Master as Erza told him to. The man only eyed the boy though, long and hard, before sighing, loudly.

"What do you want, Kai?"

"To say sorry," he informed the man. "About yesterday. I… I'm a coward and if you want to kick me out of the guild, I understand. And I won't cry or whine about it. Because I'm not a baby. I'm a man. And I… I shouldn't have run off. Or left Marin. I'm not a good guild member. Whatever you think should happen to me-"

"You're off job duty," Laxus ordered. "That's your punishment."

"But...I don't really take-"

"From now on," the man went on, "you're going to help out in the gift shop. And help out with the plants and things, around the property. Until I say you're off punishment. My wife is waiting for you, behind the guild, with a list of chores."

Kai blinked and almost opened his mouth to question, but managed to keep his shut and only bowed to his master before rushing off to go find Mrs. Master. He hesitated thouhg, outside, when he found that Mirajane wasn't alone. Instead, Marin was there, looking over the list of things with her, as they stood before the shrubbery back there. At the sight of his friend, Kai's chest tightened and he thought that, maybe, he should just go hand in his resignation himself. But his feet kept going and then, there he was, before them, gulping.

At his presence though, Marin didn't even think about it. She tossed her arms around him and hugged him tightly.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "Mommy and Daddy made me go home last night, before they found you, but-"

"Are you?"

"What do you mean?"

"The man didn't attack you? Or cut you up? Or anything?" He felt bad, but he'd kinda forgotten to ask anyone about the girl's well-being. Shameful, really. "Marin?"

"No." She didn't mean to, but she did giggle as she let him go, her blue eyes shining as she only said, "I'm a slayer too, Kai. Did you forget?"

Shaking his head, he whispered, "No."

"You shouldn't have run away," she chided then. "Kai. You know I'll always protect you."

"I know, I just… I got scared."

"You don't have to be." She patted at his shoulder then. "Ever. I'll never let something hurt you"

When he could only nod, Mirajane took to giggling before handing out Kai's punishment to him. It felt like a lot of work. But she assured him that, as the new groundskeeper, he'd be getting a steady pay of his own and that sounded just swell to the boy.

Erza, who had previous taken the boy's inability at direction more as a nuisance than anything else, began to more seriously take a look into it. She trained with him, when she was free, leaving him further and further in the city until, eventually, he could at least find his way back to her home, no matter what.

"And I'm not here-"

"I wait. Until you or Ravan get here."

That was right.

He wasn't doing much traveling though in those days, Kai wasn't. Rather, he was quite bogged down with the new duties he had down at the hall.

"Sorry, Marin," he sighed a lot as, instead of doing anything fun, the pair only water plants and dug in dirt. "I'm a working man now. A 9 to noon man. It's not like I'm enjoying this."

He was enjoying this. Dirt, flowers, chasing critters off the property. And he was being paid for it? To the veneration of Elfman? And the pride of Erza?

If he knew this position had been open the entire time, he'd have signed right up a long time ago!

This left Marin without a playmate sometimes though and the only one of her friends that wasn't earning a wage. That seemed really lame. And Haven taunted her over it many times. She tried to not let it bother her, but…

"Maybe you can help me learn some spells?" Laxus overheard her ask Juvia one day in the hall. "So that I can...I can…use my magic to take jobs too?"

No way was Laxus letting that happen.

"I thought you didn't want Marin to work in the bar?" Lisanna questioned when he proposed that idea instead.

"I don't. And you guys aren't to have my ten-year-old daughter serving these drunks beer." Laxus gave his wife, sister-in-law, and Kinana all a glare that bright and early morning. "I mean it."

"What do you want us to have her do then, Laxus?" Mirajane asked with a frown.

"I don't care. Find something. Because she is not going on jobs."

And he meant it.

Haven he could suffer through. Haven was fine. Haven could fend for herself (at least a little bit).

Marin?

Not so much.

"So you just sweep all day?" Ajax would come in with his mother some days quite early. It used to be to play with Marin and Kai. But they were 9 to noon people now (well, he was; she had a far more strenuous schedule). Who had time for play? "That's borin'."

Marin would only sigh though, as this was far from her only task. She had to sweep and wipe down tables, pretend to never serve people when Daddy was around.

It was a lot.

But at the end of each week, she and Kai would go out to the kid's super secret clubhouse (they'd, once more, been given looser restrictions on their walking) and pool their jewels all together.

"One day," he told her frequently, "we'll have enough jewels to buy a house. I can have my room! And you! And Erza can live there too."

"And we can get a dog."

"Yeah, that too."

A dream realized.

Haven wasn't too keen on Marin have a steady stream of income though. Seemed rather unfair. All she was doing was house chores, but up at the guild. What a lame, stupid job.

"You're not a real member," she told her sister frequently with a glare. "And neither is Kai."

Marin accepted this for a long while. But one day, while she and Kai were busy counting their loot in the clubhouse, all four of the older kids arrived. Ravan and Locke were arguing over a job while Navi only had come to retrieve something from insist. Haven was mad at all of them, like usual, but decided to take her aggression out on the younger children.

But Marin had had enough.

It had been a very stressful day for her. Scrubbing dishes and cleaning off tables. She couldn't even go with Ajax when Aunt Lissy took him to the market (she'd actually been offered, but Marin took her shifts at the guild very seriously; no matter how much she was told she very much could skip out and make it up later, she refused). All she wanted to do was unwind, in the clubhouse her and Kai had just as much right to (well, maybe), with out Haven being mean to her. Was that too much to ask for?

Huh?

Was it?

If Kai was growing every day, Marin was growing every second and the power inside her was unfulfilled, restless, and relentless. She was not someone to be messed with. Not any longer.

When Haven came over to kick their stack of jewels, ruining their piles, Marin had had enough.

"I am a member of Fairy Tail!" Jumping to her feet as Kai only rushed to gather up the jewels once more. "Just like Mom. I don't have to take jobs to prove myself."

Haven, too, was not one to be messed with. Or at least undermined.

"You are," she retorted with dark eyes and the other kids had never seen that, her have to put so much energy just to get Marin down, "are nothing like Mom. Or anyone. Everyone else has powerful magic. You're just a baby who cleans floors. That's all."

"I'm a Dragon Slayer."

"Only because I let you be."

"I'm stronger than you, Haven." Marin had never expressed this before. Only been told it. Mostly by Kai. But she could feel it. It was true. She knew it. Deep down, she always knew. Maybe it wasn't completely true, but she definitely had the potential, far more potential, than her sister. And, as she balled up her fists, she had another first as she glared right back up at her older sister. "If I wanted to, I kick you out of here."

"M-Marin." Kai was getting to his feet as well then as even Locke and Ravan stopped their argument. "Maybe we should just go."

No.

They shouldn't.

Haven growled some, pressed her forehead against her sister's as she glared down at her. "I'd like to see you try."

They didn't though because, unlike the others, Locke did _not_ want to see the Dreyar girls fight. Water and electricity didn't mix and, though he didn't doubt Marin's ability to, maybe, one day be like Haven, be as strong as Haven, he knew that she was barking up the wrong tree currently. A war she was unable to win. Even if somehow she got out of the battle, Haven would definitely pummel her overall. He didn't want that.

"Haven, we have to go," he said as he came to grab her arm and drag her away. "Anyways. We need to get the job. The one I want-"

"I'm not going on that job." And Ravan was snapped out of his interest too. He'd have liked to see it, the two of them have it out, but he wasn't going to allow it to distract him from the real matter at hand. "I'm not."

"Then don't come with us."

"Why don't you not come with us, Locke?"

"Because I'm the one invited, idiot, so-"

"I got it." Navi found what she needed then, from one of the cupboards. "We can go."

Haven only glared at her sister though and Marin didn't back down. Not a bit.

When the older kids left, Kai only tackled Marin to the ground with glee. There had been no battle, there was no war, but whatever had just gone down, he felt as if she'd been victorious in it.

"Marin," he giggled as, with the absence of her sister, they could both feel the animosity dissipate. "What was that?"

She only giggle back though. "I dunno. She's just so mean sometimes and… Maybe I shouldn't have-"

"You have." And he meant it. "Haven's a bully. But she can't bully us anymore. Right?"

Marin wasn't so sure about that, but nodded regardless. They had their jewels to get back to then though and, after a few long sighs, started their calculating once more.

Her Aunt Evergreen sure was proud of her, a few days later, when she and Kai arrived at her house for tea. They had this occasionally. Well, the girls did. Kai and Elfman mostly played cards in the living room while going over way manlier things. Like what flowers Kai felt would bloom the nicest in the fall around the guildhall.

"Good," Ever told her niece as they sat at the dining room table, discussing far more feminine things. Like how to take down Haven. "She's a brat."

The girl nodded slowly before whispering, "I don't wanna fight with her. But-"

"Marin, sometimes you just have to stand up for yourself. This is one of those times. It's long overdue. Believe me."

"But what if-"

"Would you rather," Ever questioned then, "whatever you're about to say happen? Or have your sister bully you for the rest of forever? You're stronger than you know, Marin."

"I'm telling you," Kai was growling then, from the living room, "that goldenrod would make the flowerbeds pop!"

"And I'm telling you that aster is the way to go!"

"Elfman, would you keep it down?" Evergreen tried hard not to roll her eyes, but it was difficult. "Moron."

But Marin could only smile, down at her cup of tea. Her aunt was right. Whatever had crawled into her, whether it was just aggravation after a long days work or something more, she knew that she couldn't keep letting her sister berate her. No way. She was a slayer. A working woman. No time to be bullied by her sister.

Something was different though, when Haven came back from her job. Marin expected her to come home and want to tussle, in retaliation for out at the clubhouse, but Haven didn't mention it again. And she didn't bring up how Marin wasn't a real member or a real mage anymore.

"I think that she finally thinks of me as a real wizard," Marin beamed with pride to Kai.

"Locke just told her to knock it off," Ravan informed his brother simply when he expressed the idea to his brother later that night. He didn't seem too happy about talking about it though, Ravan didn't. "Haven listens to him. Sometimes, I guess."

"At least she listens to someone," Erza sighed over dinner, but Kai decided not to tell Marin about that.

She was a strong mage. A respectable one. A real wizard. A 9 to noon'er. Like him. Except, you know, she worked a lot more.

Maybe they were growing at different paces, but it was only through one another that they did so. Without Marin, Kai didn't feel like he'd be much. It was the perfect, fated storm that brought them together and though he'd have never wished for it, all that led him to Fairy Tail, as he drifted further and further from the memories of it, he couldn't think of anywhere he'd rather be. Shadesbay was far behind him. He had a new life now. A real life.

They were Fairy Tail wizards, he and Marin were. Forever.


	4. Ravan

The fucked up thing was that he recognized how much better he was for it. How his life was only going to, hopefully, trend in the right direction simply because some kind of sea monster happened to wash up on the shore of his tiny, coastal village and destroyed the life he'd known up to that point. It wasn't a good life. Not a great one. You rose, you worked, you ate what you worked for, then you slept until it was time to do it again.

Anyone who left the village typically was never heard of again. Not because they necessarily had had something terrible befall them, but rather because who wanted to even think of that place? Once you got out of it? Who wanted to think of their parents wasting away in the salty air, living every day with the same outlook as the last?

There was nothing there, in Shadesbay. There never would have been. Leaving it was the best thing that had ever happened to Ravan.

But the reason that he left it, the reason that he got to live the life he was currently, was only because his parents had been killed. Because that sea monster killed them. Where that not to have happened literally in the exact situation it did, with Erza coming down and all, he'd probably still be there. Working day in and day out. In a few years, he'd probably end up with one of the girls from the village and have kids of his own and work until he was too old to work.

And not think anything of it.

Now though, he was in Magnolia, in Fairy Tail, with a whole world of opportunity opened before him that he never even knew existed. He was training with one of the top mages around, one of the best swordswomen, and taking jobs for the top guild in the kingdom.

So why was he miserable all the time?

Ravan didn't know. He didn't get it. It felt a lot of times like he was in the wrong place. Doing the wrong thing. He didn't fit in and it showed. Fairy Tail didn't need him and he was just in the way. The other kids in the guild seemed to all detest him for a litany of (reasonable) reasons, most of the adults saw him as a nuisance, and he was just so alone. In the horde of Fairy Tail members, he at best got along with his brother and his brother's friend. That was it.

It was as embarrassing as it was revealing.

But the more that he recognized himself as being alone, the less Ravan wanted to interact with the others. It wasn't that he didn't see the detriment that he was causing mostly to himself and it wasn't even that he didn't care. He did care. A lot. It was just that...that… The more everyone rejected his shittiness, the shittier he became, as if to spite them. A vicious cycle. He could feel himself becoming more hateful, but he felt powerless to it.

Erza, in all the infinite wisdom she claimed to possess, seemed unable to provide him any guidance in this. She felt as if inner peace and redemption was found solely through self-reflection and the most she could do for Ravan was provide him avenues for his inner demons.

"You will only end up on the ground again," she said often as he would glare up at where she stood, smug, so perfect, so fucking annoyingly, disapprovingly, looking right down into his eyes, "if you continue to lose focus, Ravan. Now rise. Dust off. Then try again."

Sometimes he would.

Other times he growl that he hated her and her stupid training and he didn't need her anyways. She wasn't helping him learn anything. At all.

Then he'd run off. It used to be just around the city, aimless and lost, but the guild children were given a place for just such situations. The clubhouse, however, wasn't always a safe space for the boy. The others were typically around and that was never fun because he hated them, all of them, and man, he was glad, when he arrived at it, one day in particular, when Erza was being extra hard on him for _no reason_.

Well, some reason.

He'd returned unsuccessful from a job. He'd never done that before, come back that way. This main relied on the fact that, up to this point, most of the jobs he took were rather 'safe'. Hard to screw up on. Either that or, if they were bigger and more elaborate, done in conjunction with the slayer kids. He'd only recently begun to take complex solo jobs. He twelve and that meant that the Master might start considering him S-Class material and Ravan wasn't even sure if he wanted that, if he even cared about that, but Erza seemed so excited about it. She cautioned that he definitely wouldn't be in consideration, no way, not for a long time, but if he started now, showing himself, proving himself, then maybe, one day, like her, he could only be a teen, yet considered one of the top wizards in the guild. Wouldn't he want that?

He wasn't sure. But he knew she wanted it. And that meant something. Again, he didn't know what it meant, but it meant something to him. He wanted to impress Erza. For some reason. He wanted her to think that he was strong and competent and he didn't want to just get drug along on S-Class jobs with her; he wanted to take those jobs from her.

But it was hard. He didn't rely on spells or his daddy's stupid power, like all the slayer kids did. No. His magic was at a basic level. His reequip was hardly even big enough for armor. No. Just weapons. He was trained in weapons. Well. And he wasn't stupid like the rest of them. That was a big part of jobs. The mental aspect. His social skills weren't great, fine, but his deductions were typically sound.

But he fucked up. Over estimated. And had to make the long trek back to Magnolia, empty handed and defeated.

"Oh, it's okay, Ravan," Mirajane assured him with a smile as he reported back at the hall unsuccessful. "I'll just tack the job back up and someone else will handle it, I'm sure. It happens."

But it hadn't happened, before that. Not to him, at least. And, as he approached home, the last thing he wanted to do was explain to Erza how it had come about.

She was not pleased, nor amused, but only shook her head some. Didn't even say anything. Just shook her head at him. Because she was disappointed. Again. Only this time, it wasn't about something stupid like training in the backyard, him skipping out on chores, or her finding out he was treating his brother like the idiot his brother, honestly, was. No. She was disappointed because the one thing he was there to do, the only thing she really wanted from him, he'd been unable.

He'd failed.

Again.

Because, really, honestly, he failed all the time. At everything. His magic was nowhere near the level of the other kids, he wasn't close to being as smart as them, his behavior was never not shit, and, fine, he was okay with his weapons, but her level? Not even close.

He should have never come to Magnolia.

He ran from the house that day, through the streets and to the forest where he easily and thankfully found the empty clubhouse. He needed to be alone for awhile. A long while.

But he was busy doing that when it happened. He could sense her easily as she approached. Haven. She didn't have an immense magical presence, not like Erza or anything, but rather the air had a way of turning when she was near as she absorbed the static in the air, every bit of it. She didn't have a lacrima, like her father, to allow storage and instead seemed to constantly require a stream of it.

Ravan didn't know what came over him. Haven wasn't even coming there for him. Of course not. She'd been gone too, on a job with Locke and Navi, and was probably just returning home. She'd have no idea that he'd returned unsuccessful from his own. There was no way she had any intention of doing anything to him or even cared about him in that moment.

But it didn't matter.

Out of all the kids that Ravan hated, Haven was by far the worst. He hated Locke and Navi because of things he perceived about them, but he hated Haven because of things he knew. She was a spoiled little shit who didn't realize how fucking lucky she was. At all.

Haven constantly bitched and moaned about how horrible her father and mother were because… No reason. At all. Just because she was a brat. She thought it was annoying that her parents loved her and was openly claimed hatred for anyone who dared not think the exact same way as her. With no repercussions. At all.

The worst part though? Of her? Of the whole thing?

She did it all under the guise of being rebellious. Of being broken. Of being held back and held down and forced to confirm, but resisting.

Of all the things that he actually was and...and...and..

"Ra- What are you doing? Hey!"

He attacked her. The second she opened the door to the clubhouse, he pounced on Haven, tackling her to the ground. This didn't last for long, of course, and she was fighting back, as she always would, but something was different. Off. The kids always fought with ferocity, but Ravan wasn't letting up. He seemed to be seriously upset about something. When he summoned a blade and, instead of just threatening to cut her up, literally sliced her arm, Haven knew that she was in trouble.

"What's wrong with you?" she growled in shock, but he was swinging wildly at her again and Haven wasn't looking for anymore scars. No. If they were gonna fight to the death, then it was gonna be his.

It was with a loud crack that Haven expelled all of her remaining magical energy, all at once. There wasn't a lot, honestly, at the moment. She'd just returned, after all, from a job. But she sent what she could into a huge bolt that flowed from her right arm and Ravan didn't even seem to have time to dodge it. They were that close.

His cry was piercing and sharp as he collapsed to the hard dirt ground, dropping his favorite blade from his clutches. Haven was weak herself, now out of magical power, and could only heave heavily as she almost fell over as well. Almost. Catching herself at the last possible second, she glared down at where the boy laid, convulsing for a few seconds before just settling out.

Going over to his fallen weapon, she only picked it up, gripping the hilt tightly, before going to lord over the other child.

"I," she said as she pressed a foot against his singed check, the tip of the sword near his neck, "win."

But as his eyes opened, they were still trapped in a glare.

"Do it," he challenged weakly as Haven only frowned.

"What?"

"Do it." His voice was less shaky that time. It was almost an order. "Kill me."

She tossed the sword away then, away from both of them, and took a step back. "You're crazy, Ravan."

"You're a coward."

"Why would you want me to murder you?"

"You won't do it, will you?"

"You need help." She was taking more steps away then. "Did something happen?"

But he only sat up gingerly, refusing to look at her.

Something happened, alright. Something always happened. To him. Only him. Everything bad only ever happened to him and it wasn't fair. Everything he went through was just that; what he went through. Alone. He didn't have the Salamander as a father, to listen to you whine about how useless you were. Or Black Steel to help him get stronger. Or Raijin there to support him and make sure that he got everything he needed to succeed.

No.

It was just Ravan alone. Trying to do what he needed to do. All by himself.

All he wanted was for Erza to be pleased with him. Truly pleased with him. But it just never happened. It couldn't happen. Because he was never going to be the best. Not as long as the slayer kids were there to mess it all up.

If Haven felt out of place before, with the whole literally goading her to kill him thing, then when Ravan started tearing up, she was completely lost then.

"Do...do you want me to get somebody? For you?" Blood was still dripping warmly down her arm, but Haven hardly felt the sting. Only stared at the other child. "Erza? I can go get her, I guess, if-"

"No, don't!" He tried to sound commanding then, but it came out through a choking sob and he was a failure.

The biggest failure.

Haven wanted to. To get Erza. Someone. Her mother, maybe. Because she had no idea what to do now. But...what if they thought her shocking him so much has been what made him all, well, weepy? She didn't want to get in trouble. Not when she was gonna get praised real big by her father that night, probably, for how great she'd done on her job.

Slowly, she took steps forwards again and, getting on her knees before the boy, she reached out to pat at her shoulder, but he only shoved her away.

"Ravan-"

"Just go!"

"No." Frowning, she asked, "Why are you being like this?"

The kids fought. All of them. A lot. She'd even argued with Locke so much before that the boy cried about it, to his mother. But not like this. And only when they were little kids. Not now. No way. And nothing like what Ravan was doing. She'd never seen someone breakdown like he was currently.

"Like you would understand! Just go away, Haven. I don't want you here."

She didn't exactly want to be there either, but she was. Which could be solved, yeah, by just leaving him. She had every right to. He'd attacked her for literally no reason, she'd only defended herself, and now it was over. It was done.

But…

Sitting back on her butt, Haven pulled her knees to her chest as she only stared straight ahead, right at the boy as he softly began to cry into his palms, unsuccessful in any attempt to hide his tears or pain.

Eventually, all his tears dried up and he felt much the same, inside and out. Sitting there with his legs crossed, he stared down at his lap silently as the sun only continued to set around them, the two children as alone as they had been for at least an hour. Eventually, Ravan lifted hie eyes to meet Haven's, still just there, watching him.

"I didn't," he told her softly, "finish my job. I failed."

"Oh." Haven wasn't sure how that was relevant to anything. "Okay."

"What do you mean? Huh? Okay? It's not okay. It's-"

"You should have come with us. We finished ours."

"Shut up." Huffing then, his eyes fell once more. "I needed this job, but I wasn't able to do it. To fnish it. Now… Now Erza's gonna think..."

"Why do you care what Erza thinks?"

"Why do you care what Master thinks?"

"I don't," Have told him simply though she was actually kind of bummed that it was getting close to dinner time, when she'd be able to tell the man all about what she'd done, but there she was, sitting around with stupid Ravan. "At all."

"Shut up, Haven."

"Stop telling me that."

"Then-"

"I'm trying to be nice, Ravan. Trying really hard. And you're-"

"Why? Huh? What do you care? You hate me, remember."

"You hate me."

"Yeah, and I'm not pretending like I don't."

Huffing, Haven finally looked away. "You're so stupid."

"I'm stupid?"

"Yeah."

"You're the one-"

"Erza's not mad at you. Or whatever. She's probably just glad that you came back. Like how Laxus would be if I didn't finish a job."

"What do you know? Huh? About Erza? Nothing. So shut your mouth."

"I know a lot, actually." About everything. Or at least she felt that she did. Still, looking back at him, she added, "Erza wouldn't want you to, like, die, Ravan. For not completing a job. She doesn't' complete them, sometimes, even. So-"

"I didn't say that she did."

"Then why did you want me to kill you so badly?"

"I didn't."

"You clearly did."

"Just… Don't tell anyone about that." They were staring at one another again, the pair were. "Not even Locke. Or your father. Or-"

"I won't."

"Haven-"

"If I say I won't, Ravan, then I won't."

Nodding then, he fell back, finally, against the ground. He wouldn't be able to go back to Erza's. Not for awhile. Haven's spell had really sent a heavy charge through him. On top of his already depleted magic and heightened emotions, he was spent.

She was as well, the oldest Dreyar girl was, but she also had somewhere to be. She was late to dinner, fine, but was it even really dinner before the best mage around arrived? Laxus would tell her, at this, later at home, that it wasn't, but he'd been there the whole time. Then they'd argue.

Haven didn't want to admit just how much she was looking forwards to it.

Shoving up from the ground, she held down her grimace as she went to, once more, stand over the boy, As she looked straight down into his eyes, the girl said, "If anything's gonna kill you, Ravan, it's gonna be my lightning. So don't go around asking anyone else. I call dibs."

He wanted to shove at her, but she was already walking away, first into the clubhouse, where she spent some time bandaging her wound before coming back out to toss gauze and ointment at him. There were no more words spoken between the two of them that night, but there didn't need to be. Ravan listened to her departure in silence as, slowly, the air felt much more breathable.

Erza would be waiting for him, the next morning, with a full list of household chores, and Ravan only nodded his head down at the ground, just thankful the woman didn't mention the extra wounds he came home sporting.

The next time he saw Haven, she made no mention of the incident from the day before. She didn't say anything, really, to him. Not even as Locke took exception to the way Ravan just interjected himself into the conversation and then they were arguing, there, in the guildhall, but for once, Haven only sat beside Navi, saying nothing. The younger girl was curious about this, but Haven offered no explanation and, well, no one questioned her much. Or else the blonde would find a desire to quarrel.

"You don't have to be nice to me now. You know."

Ravan grumbled this a few days later when, still, no matter the goading, Haven hadn't so much as said a bad word to him. Locke had. Locke always would. But Haven…

Something was different.

They were alone at the clubhouse again, the pair were. Haven was already there when he arrived, hiding out from her father who was really pissy about something super dumb (because to Haven, getting upset with her tormenting Marin was really dumb), but Navi was busy babysitting her brothers and Locke was training, alone, with his father. So it was just them. Ravan and Haven.

He didn't know it at the time, but this would eventually become more of a norm than not.

"I'm nice to everyone."

He frowned at Haven, but she wouldn't look at him. It was a rainy, gross day out, so they were hiding out inside the little house, Haven seated at the old table, some magic books spread about, while Ravan sat with his back against a while, mostly pouting about nothing. They would have been fighting by that point, the two of them, under a normal circumstance, but they seemed to be playing by different rules now. Ones that he wasn't sure how he felt about.

"You're not nice to anyone."

"Then why are you saying I am?"

"I dunno. Why are you being nice to me?"

"I'm not." Then she paused. "Except for I am, I guess, because I'm nice to everyone."

He tried hard not to groan.

"Stop treating me weird then," Ravan corrected then. "And you are, you know. Different than before. I'm not, like, some sort of wounded person. I'm not sick or hurt or anything. I'm just me."

"What do you want?" Finally, she glanced over from the table with a bit of a frown. "From me?"

"I want..." To argue. To fight. To be...how they always were. The tension that was usually around them, that usually led to such things, had shifted into some sort of terse truce that hung around them harshly. And he was sick of it. "I'm not your friend."

"Okay." Haven even shrugged. "I don't remember asking you to be."

"I'm not Locke. Or Navi."

"Gross. Good." She jumped up then, slamming the heavy tome shut as she frowned over at them. "Navi sucks. And so does Locke."

Mainly because they'd both had things other to do, that day, than be bossed around by her. The audacity.

"And I'm not the one being different." Coming over to him, she glared down at the boy where he sat. "I kicked your ass, Ravan, and you're sitting here whining about how you don't wanna be friends. Are you gonna cry again? You're different. Not me. Crybaby."

He shoved up then and he was much like Locke, quickly out pacing her physically, but not nearly to the same extent. Gajeel was seeing to Locke's weight training, but Erza found the best quality in a knight was his ability to move swiftly and concisely. He wasn't bulking up quite the same way as the Redfox boy and, even, just didn't seem to be hitting heights at the same pace. It made him much easier for Haven to still knock around, anyways, and she preferred it.

As they glared at one another, she was no longer taller than him, but their eyes were about even, but there was something missing in both pairs. The darkness. It had always been there, between the two of them. The first time they met, after all, Ravan was trying to rob Haven's father. And though she could see the desire one might have to ruin the man's day, she actually did have something of a moral code. Which he continued to violate every step of the way. Though the pair could work, in a group, competently, it was usually just a ticking time bomb that was slated to go off at any moment. They'd never had a true conversation and never once actually thought the other as anything more than an adversary.

Something changed that day though, when he sliced her arm and Haven nearly electrocuted him. Their views of one another had always been based on one another's worst qualities, but there was far more to both children than just their horrible attitudes. They just weren't good at expressing their other attributes, not looking deeply at another's.

Haven and Ravan were far closer to being the same than they were different. It was what always drove a wedge between them.

But when he shoved her then and she shoved him back, there was no malice there and Haven even smiled, maybe, and he never did that, but maybe he kind of did too. Maybe. At the very least, as the sky cleared up and they took to training outside, together, not fighting, not tussling, but legitimately training with one another rather than hoping secretly to injure the other, neither complained too much about how things had changed. How they were different. They wouldn't again. Not to one another.

Which wasn't to say they never argued. Never hated one another. Never viciously fought again. Because they did. And would. Always. But it wasn't their standard position in relation to the other. It felt...good. To Ravan.

Erza noted a change in his attitude and responded well to it, a few days later.

"You're not as mopey," she said as in congratulations and he only gave her a glare then, but she ignored it. "As you should not be. It is time for you to take a new job."

He didn't want to. At all. Not after he'd failed at the last one. But Erza insisted and, well, the other kids were all off on one once more, so if he was going, then it had to be alone. Like last time.

She went with him, down to the hall, but seemed more focused on Kai, who was being his typical annoying self. Ravan just stood before the board though, glancing over the different jobs. It would be so easy, so very easy, to just snatch up one of the lower level ones. One of the ones he'd spent so long taking. So long acing. Rather than a complex, drawn out one that he had the risk of...of…failing.

So easy.

And yet…

"Make sure you bring some extra jewels with you," Lisanna giggled when he brought it over to her to be filled. "This is pretty far. Are you going alone?"

When he nodded, the woman smiled and reminded him to stay safe. Then he went over to bid his brother goodbye.

"Kai," he complained when the other boy wrapped his arms tightly around him. "Knock it off!"

"I'll miss you," the younger boy insisted, as he always did. Even if Ravan was only going a few towns over. "A lot."

Ravan wouldn't him.

Still, he patted his brother on the back, just to get him to release him, before looking to Erza. She only nodded though.

"I hope to be home," she said simply, "when you return."

She wouldn't be, when he did, but once she was, the woman was pleased to learn it had gone well. And that, not waiting another moment, he'd gone right back out on another one. He knew the idea would only make her even more proud.

It was all he wanted, really.

Erza wasn't hard to draw praise from, but she was just as easy to draw criticism. One had a far higher affect on him, but seemed to be just as frequent on the lips of his mentor. She just had high standards, which she wanted met, by him, at all times. Erza was tough.

But fair.

He knew his faults and shortcomings were, literally, his. To be angry that she took note of them would be childish. Which he was slowly becoming less of. A child.

"Look at you. A man now, if I've ever seen one."

Jellal sounded presently surprised, but not nearly as much as Ravan was to see the man there. He arrived home one day, sometime after his fourteenth birthday, to Erza's boyfriend seated at the kitchen table, like it was nothing.

The man had actually been around a few times, that year, but Ravan was always gone, on jobs, then. Kai would always have tons of stories to share about the man, but Ravan would only roll his eyes and pretend to not enjoy hearing them.

Jellal was nowhere close to as important in his life as Erza, but he was a part of the woman, in a strange way, and Ravan felt kind of...protective over her. Maybe. Sort of. Jellal probably actually knew her a lot better, way better, but Ravan felt like he was a far bigger staple in her life currently than the man. He had no reason to distrust Jellal, and he didn't, honest, but he knew it still had to hurt Erza, at least a little. Their relationship. Ravan was nowhere close to be an authority on it, but…

"Awe," Haven mocked him one day at the clubhouse where, after training, they both just sat in the grass, talking. They did that then. Like friends. It's what they were then. More than ever before. "Are you jealous?"

"Shut up."

"Do you, like, have a crush on Erza or something?"

"Don't be gross." He wasn't entertained. At all. Still, she only snickered at him.

"Imagine," she kept right up, "thinking that this whole time Erza's been so depressed, without her boyfriend, you've been right there-"

"Haven."

She wasn't laughing any longer, instead only falling back into the warm grass blades, blinking up at the blue sky above them. "It is weird, I guess. The way he just pops back up sometimes. You'd think they'd be bored of one another by now, anyways. I'd be bored of it."

"You don't know anything about it."

"I know plenty." About everything. Always. "Caring that much about someone is dumb, anyways. That you just, what? Only live half your life? Until they're back around, for what? A minute? Half a year? It's stupid."

"You just don't get it."

"Then what are you whining about?"

"I'm not whining about anything." He let out a short huff. "I'm just talking."

"Then stop talking about it," she decided for him. She was great at that. Deciding things for others. "If Erza isn't bothered by it, you shouldn't be."

He agreed to a certain extent, but it was easier said than done. In those days, Jellal didn't mystify the boy, but rather annoyed him some, when he was around. It was uncomfortable, anyways, as he understood more the hamper he put on Erza's rare chance to be around the man. Most of the time, if Jellal was around, he'd sleep in the clubhouse and order Kai over to Marin's.

The least they could give Erza, anyways, was privacy.

He felt that in ways that had nothing to do with the man as well though. A lot. As his jobs became his entire focus, the jewels they brought in became rather nice as well. When he was younger, it was easier to blow them on dumb things, but he was becoming less impulsive and far more disciplined. It was because of Haven, anyways, that a realization about it came over him one day.

"You're lucky," she grumbled to him one day as the pair sat with Locke and Navi up at the guildhall. The blonde was in the midst of her perpetual out with her father and was in a rather shitty attitude that day. Ravan had only just arrived back from a job and ordered something nice for dinner, at the bar, which prompted this response from the girl. "You can do whatever you want."

"What do you mean?" Locke frowned at her. "What don't you do? That you want to do?"

But she was ignoring him because he was on Laxus' side (annoying) and that meant she wouldn't talk to him for, at least, the entire day.

"You can move out whenever you want," she kept up speaking solely to Ravan. "You don't have dumb parents there to ruin it for you."

Which probably wasn't the best statement to make to an orphan, but was far better than some Haven had made in the past.

Ravan hadn't considered moving out of Erza's place in, oh, since the first year he moved in there. It was home. His home.

But she was right (as Haven felt she usually was). He was more than old enough to live on his own, could afford not only a room at the dormitory, but even a nice, small apartment in town. And if he saved some, maybe even a house eventually, in a few years. He saved that much over the years. And if he were truly working towards it, then…

"It wouldn't matter how far away I was," Navi sighed softly, just from the thought. "My dad and Happy would probably still show up. Everyday."

Haven had resolve though as she glared over at where Laxus was eating with the Thunder Legion. "I'll do it soon."

She wouldn't, there was no way that she was even close to be ready at thirteen, but she felt as if she were.

Locke only sighed though. "My dad never shuts up about how he was already self-sufficient by now. For a long time."

"Shut up." Haven didn't look at him. "No one cares. Traitor."

Ravan hardly listened to their argument though (Navi unfortunately had to, given she was stuck between them. He could focus on nothing other than what had just left the blonde's mouth.

"I could move out," he told Erza one day after she spent a good portion of it bitching at him and Kai about their cleanliness. Mostly over the state they'd left the single bathroom the home had in, while she'd been off on an S-Class job. "If that's what you want."

But he didn't yell it. Didn't say it as a threat or even seem to have been affected by her scolding (he'd been gone too; the mess was all his brother's). He was just sitting there, on the couch, as the words suddenly left his mouth. Erza only frowned at him tough, as she stood before the boy.

"What? Why would you do that?"

But he only shrugged.

He'd stumped her with his words though and Erza only left the room with little rebuttal or confirmation. Kai luckily didn't hear (he was busy scrubbing whatever that...stain was off the bathroom wall) because he'd have a lot to say, but it wasn't about him. No. It was about Ravan.

"You can do as you wish," Erza finally decided that night when she returned from her nightly workout to find the older boy sitting out on the front porch, reading over a comic. She'd taken a seat beside him, on the step, but didn't glance down at him. Only sat there. Always there, never far. "Ravan. I will not make a decision for you. Unless of course you wish to ask my opinion on a place. I've only ever stayed here and the dormitory, but I will be sure to speak with any landlord you have. Make sure they give you a fair take." She paused again, for a moment, before whispering, "But only if it's what you wish."

"Don't you want me to go?"

"If this is about the state of the house while I was out-"

"It's not."

"Then-"

"I have to move out eventually." His comic fell the side and he almost blushed, honestly, over it's presence. "And I can afford it. I can't stay forever."

"No," she agreed. "You can't."

"Then-"

"But I do not wish to see you leave until you are certain you are ready. There is no rush." Her eyes finally were on him then as she said simply, "Being adult is more than monetary, Ravan. Do not rush into it foolishly. Enjoy the freedoms that come before it. They will never return."

"Kai would miss me," he sighed, after a few moments of silent thought.

"Kai will be going with you."

And she meant it.

In that moment, at least.

"Besides," Erza sighed as she got to her feet. "There is much else you can do with your money. I do not wish to be the only one funding your weapon arsenal, you understand."

He did and didn't all at the same time.

She went with him though, the first time he decided that, perhaps, it was time to look into some armor.

"Something like mine?" she questioned and he didn't want to hurt her feelings, but not at all.

He didn't grow up wishing to be a knight, like Erza had as a kid, but rather foresaw himself as something much different.

His chest plate was solid black with only a red Fairy Tail emblem engraved across it and he didn't like the gauntlets much, so he ditched them early on, but fingerless gloves quickly became part of his attire. For better grip, he told Erza, on his weapons, but he knew that he just felt pretty cool, when he'd hold up a hand and clench it into a fist.

The coolest part though was the helmet that Erza 'helped' him design. By which he meant he only nodded along when she showed him a crude depiction of what he described, not letting on that it was utter shit. Still, she was the one with the armor connections (even if it only seemed to be Heart Kreuz; gross, he wasn't a chick). No need to piss her off.

The others teased him, the first time he wore his full gear out on a job, but Ravan found that he liked it there, in his helmet, where he could see them and they couldn't him. It covered his entire face and, other than when he pushed up the protection over the eyes, it was like looking out at the world from behind glass. Like he was separated from it. From others.

How he'd felt his whole life.

He found even wasn't wearing his helmet that he would tie a bandanna around his mouth or hide it frequently into his palm. A nervous thing, maybe, a safety blanket, probably, but it felt like he was keeping up the ruse of hiding all feelings, just because others couldn't see his mouth. His lips. Any emotion he might have.

He never felt cooler though than when, when he turned seventeen, he made a far bigger investment.

"Wow!" Navi was rare to stand so close to Ravan, but as he pulled up in front of the guild on his new motorcycle (well, new to him), she was quick to rush right over. "This is so awesome."

Locke only snorted though, arms crossed over his chest. "It's junk."

"It's is," Haven agreed, but she wasn't just be her typical ornery self. No. Rather, it was where Ravan had gotten the motorcycle that bothered her.

"It's old," Mirajane told Ravan as they stood out in the garage where the bike sat. "But he still fires it up sometimes. It shouldn't be in too bad shape. And I'll make you a great deal on it."

The woman had put up a flier in the hall about it being for sale and, though Laxus seemed to bite the head of anyone who inquired about it, when Ravan asked Mirajane to show it to him, she was quick to jump on it.

Cheap and thrilling was right up his alley though and Ravan knew if he wasn't quick about the purchase, someone else in the hall would snag it.

Haven was really mad at him though, for dealing with her parents.

"And because," she grumbled with a glare when, eventually, she took him off the silent treatment, "it was supposed to be mine."

That's what she felt. And had mentioned, apparently, to her parents, prompting Laxus to forbade it and Mirajane to try and sell it. Not because she didn't want her daughter to use it; but because she did not want to have to deal with the headache of arguments it was going to spawn between them.

Laxus wasn't pleased with this and he let it be known to Ravan, a few days later, when he called the boy into his office at the guild.

"Sit," Laxus growled at him and Ravan didn't respect many people outside of Erza, but he did try to his Master. "Now."

As he slipped into the chair, Laxus only huffed before going to claim the one behind the desk.

"Do you know why I asked you to come in here?" the slayer asked though he didn't give the boy a chance to answer. "Because you fucking bought my bike."

Ravan tried hard not to tremble.

Glaring at him, Laxus continued.

"It means a lot to me," the man went on. "A whole lot. I bought it when I was about your age. With my own, hard earned jewels. Full price. I worked my ass off for that thing and my wife handed over to you for next to nothing. You know why I did that? Huh? Do you?"

Ravan had a feeling it wasn't because the man liked him so much.

"Because," Laxus growled, "my daughter. There was no way I was gonna keep her off it much longer. So I gave it up. Because I care about her. And I don't want her spending time around something dangerous. Something that can hurt her."

The teen found it best not to mention she was a working mage who did many things that could hurt her and even seemed to enjoy the idea of it quite a bit.

"Do you understand what I'm telling you? Ravan?"

He swallowed some, but nodded. "That you don't want me to let Haven ride the-"

"No."

And then he knew. Because Laxus had expressed similar sentiments to him before. Twice. They were usually more direct though.

"Haven and I are just friends," he insisted, but Laxus only snorted and told him to fuck off.

"And leave my daughter alone," he added because he didn't like him. Ravan. The boy wasn't sure why (though, again, they had never gotten off on a great start either), but he could do little about it. Only jumped to his feet and headed right out the door.

Erza was waiting for him.

"What did the Master want?" she asked as Marin, using the fact her father was locked away in his office, rushed over with beers. No one tipped the janitor, after all. But the waitress… "Ravan?"

He only shrugged and the woman just sighed.

"Doesn't matter." She shoved up as Marin's face fell, realizing this would mean no tip. No matter. She was just as quickly setting her sites on the table beside theirs. "Do you wish to accompany me on my job?"

Anything to get out of that hall.

But he couldn't hate the Master too much. At all. It was because of him that he got his cheap bike (that wasn't so cheap in upkeep) and he didn't feel nearly as good anywhere else than on the bike of it, sliding through the streets of Magnolia late into the night.

It was so fucked up. All of it. To know that if his parents were still alive, if his village had stayed his home, he'd never have this. This freedom. This chance. This opportunity. This dream, as horrible as it felt at times, that he wouldn't change the world for. He hoped they'd be proud of him, that they'd understand why he loved it so much more, where he was currently. What he was doing currently. While the emblem on his chest felt so much more important than anything he left behind back there on the coast.

Fairy Tail was his entire life. He didn't know one without it any longer. And on late nights, when he tried to be quiet about coming in from a long few hours of burning magical energy on his bike, he couldn't help the smile his head against his bandanna as the light in Erza's bedroom only went out after the door was locked and he was inside.

Whether his parents would be proud or not, he knew someone was. Of him. Of what he was doing. That was all that mattered.

* * *

**One more. The best for last, of course. **


	5. Haven

His entire life had read like a bad prophecy that never rightly got fulfilled. Laxus had the tragic backstory, the fabled magic, and a legacy just waiting to be plucked. And yet even as he claimed his dreams, found his power, settled down into his storybook ending, something was always...off. Maybe it had always been. With him. His outlook. Maybe all the things that he dreamed of were just distractions from the underlying cause of all his inner turmoil.

He was the problem. He was the odd person out. He was never going to feel content or happy or any of things he always chased in his youth. His life currently was how it would be until his death and if he didn't find some sort of contentment in it, if he didn't enjoy living out the life he'd always envisioned for himself, then whose fault was that?

Other than his own?

Laxus felt like he hid this well behind his apathetic and distant personality. People didn't think that he cared much about and any unhappiness he expressed was simply part of the hard ass shtick he had. Mirajane seemed to see through it frequently and would only tussle his hair some on days when he sat around the bar and sighed a lot.

"Don't look so down, dragon," she'd sigh too as he only blinked up at her. "It'll be over soon."

She was talking about the day, he always figured, but didn't press her too much.

Mirajane, after all, was finding her dream to be rather lackluster too.

They both thought that they hid it so well. She'd always been good at faking smiles and he always figured no one outside of the Thunder Legion gave a fuck about his feelings anyways, but there was someone they didn't fake around very much. Someone they never bothered to hide very many things. Not when she seemed so disinterested with what they were actively trying to show her, anyways.

But Haven did notice things. Pick up things. She could tell from a very early age that her parents were unhappy people. With their work, with their lives. With her. It was hard to blame them. Their jobs, lives, and her relationship with them did suck.

She couldn't remember the days when she loved Laxus so much. Her mother insisted sometimes that they existed and she could kind of recall, maybe, some things. Or at least photographs of these things. But it just didn't feel right. A time when she didn't constantly argue with the man. A time when he still left on jobs. When he wasn't just a guild master that seemed intent on ruining her life just because...because…

She wasn't sure why, actually.

But she knew he was doing it.

Haven had a strong distrust of everyone around her. A paranoia, almost. She always thought that everyone was against her. That they were only pretending to be on her side and would, eventually, turn on her. This wasn't helped by the fact that, honestly, most people weren't on her side. At least not fully.

Her aunts and uncles. The other adults that were at least somewhat involved in her life. Her parents. Her friends, Locke and Navi. They wanted the best for her like you would any young person, but they knew that, a lot of times, Haven's ideas weren't what was best for her. Her delusions didn't serve anything and her constant need to get whatever she wanted (or else) was not something to indulge in. Haven saw anything short of absolute devotion as an act of dissension, however, and rejected all criticism and correction.

If you weren't with her, you were against her.

Honestly, it was something her father exuded quite well. He shouldn't be so pissed she'd picked up on that one.

But he was. Haven's shitty attitude and actions not only reflected poorly on his, admittedly, lackluster parenting skills (they were honestly, mostly nonexistent), but his guild also. He knew that he should put her in her place. Come down on her harder. More often. Do something, anything, about what was quickly spiraling out of his control, but what was there to do? The longer he did nothing and just watched, the less of a chance he had put a stop to it and, wow, was she already taking jobs and being an active member of the guild? Giving him even more of a chance to reign in her actions? As the Master of said guild? Whoa, she was a teenager now and it was now or never.

He had to do something. If he was going to do anything.

Why was he just doing nothing?

Because he didn't care.

That's what Haven felt a lot. Short of wanting to ruin her life (she was certain he wished to do that greatly; again, for unknown reasons), he just didn't give a shit what she did. Less and less as she got older did the pair even train together. He'd been more than her guild master; he'd been her true master. Until she started taking jobs and being even more of a disrespectful little shit to him and Laxus eventually got tired of trying to force himself to keep up with it. Especially as Haven became less interested in his direction.

Maybe she was right.

Maybe he didn't care about her.

He wasn't sure, sometimes, if he really cared about anything.

Haven just didn't get it. Imagine being the master of one of the most famous guilds of all time and still being a whiny little loser about it.

"I won't be like that," she vowed, once, to Locke when she ditched out at home for the clubhouse. Laxus and her mother were fighting there, again, over something stupid again (but luckily not about her for once) and she would rather just sleep the night there. Locke had been leaving, as he'd only come by the clubhouse to collect one of his books that was left there, but his parents were both out on jobs anyways. He could stay the night too, if Haven wanted.

She didn't, she insisted, but she was all moody and stuff, which meant that whatever she said, she usually wanted the opposite.

"What?" he asked as they spread their sleeping bags out on the floor. "You mean when you're Master? Master would never do that, you know. Choose you."

"I know. That's why I didn't mean that, idiot."

He only glared.

"I don't want Fairy Tail. Who does?"

"A lot of people."

"Not me." Slipping into the bedding, she only glared up at the ceiling. "You can have it."

"I don't think it's yours to give."

Meh.

"Would you really want me as your master? Anyways?" He sure liked the idea of it. "I'd definitely make you S-Class. I mean, if you passed the test. And after my dad and Lily, of course. And my mom-"

"I'm a way better mage than your stupid mom."

"Hey-"

"And I won't still be at the guild, Locke, stupid, when you get to be Master."

"If."

"When." What she said was law, after all. "I'll be doing way more important stuff. Stuff that I don't act all put out about doing. Laxus is so stupid. He cries about everything. Imagine being mad about being a dragon slayer. About having a guild. About being a master. Laxus is such a brat. You'll be a much better master, Locke."

That was the closest they used to get to her complementing in, back in those days.

"What kind of important things though?"

"Why are you asking so many questions?"

"It's called a conversation."

Still, she just huffed, thinking.

"I dunno," she finally gave in. "But something better than what everyone here does."

"Save Fiore, a lot."

"Who's side are you on, Locke?"

Whatever side kept him from getting kicked out of the clubhouse.

Snuggling down into his own sleeping bag, he replied simply, "Always yours."

Haven wasn't so certain about that, honestly, at any point. Locke clearly was, of course, to any unbiased onlooker, but Haven was a completely biased participant and, well, she didn't have the best of judgment. It all made too much sense to her that the one person that was always right there, comfortable being second in command, would only stab her in the back eventually.

That's why she liked Navi. Well, she hated Navi, a lot, because the girl was just so vanilla it was easy to reject her, but she liked her too. Sometimes. Mostly because Navi was such a blind follower that it was hard to picture her as ever seizing control of anything.

But what if because of that, Haven turned a blind eye to her treachery?

"What exactly is it that they might betray you at though?" Freed asked her one day. "Haven?"

The pair were rare to spend time around one another, honestly. Freed was aligned heavily with Laxus and, therefore, it was kind of hard to like him much. Still, she was on 'punishment' from an incident that might have involved her fighting with Ravan doing an event at the hall, which her stupid father decided would be served at Freed's discretion. Mostly because, like always, he couldn't be bothered to figure one out himself. His wife was on his ass about it though because Haven was constantly causing problems and gah!

Freed was always an easy out for Laxus in these times. The man was very disciplined and, hey, maybe some of that would rub off on Haven.

Maybe.

At the moment though, Freed was learning so much about the girl as she helped him reorganize his bookshelf. The man was listening to her gripe about all her friends as they worked and figured it would be a good chance to peek into her psyche. As feared, it was rather bleak.

"Everything," the girl insisted to him with a heavy frown. "They know that I'm way stronger and better and smarter than them. I'm the leader. Of them. They secretly are plotting to overthrow me. Then what? I'm not going to let Locke boss me around."

"But you think that he wants you to boss him around?"

"No. That's why he's going to betray me."

"And your father-"

That was a whole other completely complex tangle of feelings.

"I can assure you," Freed tried once. "I have never heard your father plot against you."

"But why should I trust you?"

"Why do you trust anyone?"

"I don't."

"Honestly?"

"Honestly."

They worked in silence for awhile then, all the way up until their lunch break. As they sat down in his dining room, the rune mage began to question her again.

"Then when you are able to," he asked slowly, "take jobs without your friends, you will do so?"

"What do you mean?"

"If you believe that they have some sort of secret plot against you, surely, once you are allowed to, you will spend less time with them, right?"

Haven frowned down at her sandwich. Then glared up at the man.

"Why are you asking me all these questions?" Suddenly, she didn't feel so open. Clearly, the man was getting back to Laxus with this information.

Freed was a crafty one. Using her love of herself against her. Ah. What a flaw.

She finished out her tasks over there without saying much else.

Traitor.

But what he said bothered her as, off punishment once more, the ten-year-old spent the rest of that day around Navi and Locke who were waiting patiently for her at the clubhouse to expel all her hatred of Freed, her father, and her punishment. Ravan too, of course.

But she offered none of it up.

Instead, they ate hot dogs over the fire pit in mostly silence until Navi started talking about her dumb brothers and Locke listened politely while Haven only glanced around at the pair of them, through the flames.

What would the two of them even do? Without her? She always kind of assumed that in their overthrow of her regime, they'd force her to stick around and be bossed around in retaliation, but what sense did that make? She could never be broken. No. If they overthrew her, then they would get rid of her. And then...what/

Be a duo?

She tried hard to imagine them as they were currently, politely making conversation with one another, boring, paint drying conversation, but she just couldn't see it. No. Their whole group would disband without her at the first chance hey got. Locke would take solo jobs and Navi would have to find someone else to listen to the boring stories she told about her stupid twin brothers. Is that what the two of them wanted?

She didn't think so.

So what did they want? If not to overthrow her? To cast her out?

"Are you okay?" Locke asked as she allowed her weenie, skewered on the end of a stick, to char to a crisp. "Haven? Are you alright?"

"I guess so." She didn't eat it. Just slowly pulled it away from the fire, ignoring the other two children's wondering eyes. "I'm just tired. That's all."

She left them out there, at the pit, and went inside the clubhouse. No way was she going back home and risking more punishment. Gross. She was told to go to Freed's that morning, not that she ever had to return. The other children didn't have that luxury though and, eventually, it was just her, alone for once.

For some reason, it was much harder to sleep in the relative silence the woods provided when there wasn't Locke's loud snoring or Navi's chatter. She sat up, instead, seated on her sleeping bag, just listening to nothing.

Why did it bother her so much to consider the fact that there was no ulterior motive? That Locke and Navi were just, honestly, Locke and Navi and there was nothing two faced about them?

They at the very least hated it, right? That she was so powerful? Probably. Yeah, probably. That she was so much better than them. That she was going to always be better than them. That her father was better than theirs and that her mother was better than their mothers and she was just destined to be something bigger than all of them, wasn't she? Stupid Locke. What was she going to do? What _wasn't_ she going to do. Stupid all of them.

She could feel it as she just sat there, clenching her fists tightly then as the electricity jumped from them, providing light in the otherwise complete darkness.

Her mother was Satan Soul. Her father was the Thunder God. Raijin. And they thought that she would just do something like sit around in a dusty old guild all day when she got older? No. That was their fault, her parents, that they didn't capture their dreams. That they didn't fulfill them. That they stopped short.

Locke and Navi wouldn't have to overthrow her. There would be no ousting. Whatever the heck they did once she was gone was on them. Not her. Haven was only a part of Fairy Tail for a short while. Once she was old enough, she'd find something that actually stood for something, something that actually drove her, something more than a group of people that always wanted to hold her down. She'd make her own path rather than try and intercept another's. That was Laxus' mistake. Why it felt so bitter. He'd taken the easy way out on his dream. And her mom? She never even tried at hers. Was content with the small stage in the hall. But not Haven.

The others were so attached to the entity of it. Fairy Tail. It meant a lot to Navi because it meant so much to her parents. It meant a lot to Locke because it saved his father. And Ravan, well, it saved Ravan all together. Of course he loved it. So they adorned it on their arms and over their hearts, places where they could easily see the emblem and recall with pride their stupid accomplishment of joining a guild that hardly turned anyone away.

Haven's was on her back because soon enough, it would be in her past and she could forget all of them. Put them all back there too. It was what held all of them up, eventually. Why they never reached all they could be. Erza was one of the most powerful people in the world. But what was she known for? Being a Fairy Tail wizard. Everyone knew who the Salamander is. Yeah, he's a Fairy Tail guild member.

Gross.

Being powerful as a group, being one of the many powerful in a group, was a handicap.

But for the time being, she was a part of a group. The most important part. The only part, truthfully, that mattered. Sure, Locke was getting bigger than her and all, but so what? She trained just as hard as him. She struggled just as much as him. She even went out with him and his father at times, just to make sure. Just to stay ahead. Just so she would never fall behind.

She noticed the way that Gajeel became less and less keen on her tagging along, the older they got, but Locke never said anything and, honestly, Haven wanted it that way. For them to not want her there. She didn't care. It just made Gajeel work her harder, trying to shake her, to get her to not come around so often.

"Yeah," Locke laughed uncomfortably as he would scratch at his head sometimes. "My dad doesn't, uh, like you much, I guess."

It was rather obvious.

Haven found that her own father wasn't too keen, either, on one of her friends. Because, yeah, fine, she eventually caved. It was a part of being a leader, she reasoned with herself, that day Ravan threw his tantrum out in the woods. Whether he wanted to be or not, Ravan was just as much a part of them as she was.

And it wasn't like she had too many or anything. Friends. Locke was her friend, undoubtedly, and Navi was like a friend, just not as good of one. Ravan fit somewhere in the middle, at first. He was there, at least, in the early days of their shaky truce.

Which didn't mean that the pair never argued again. They did. It didn't mean they didn't fight. All the time.

But it meant that the malice that was once surrounded by it faded moire and more with each passing day until, eventually, it felt completely absent. Non-existent. It wasn't overnight. Blink and you miss it. But the progression wasn't lost on someone.

Laxus didn't have a problem with Haven doing as she pleased. That was pretty obvious. But he'd be stupid to just let his thirteen year old daughter run around with older boys and not be the least bit concerned.

Locke was one thing. Locke was a dork. Fine, his father was powerful and a brute and all that, but Laxus knew Locke. Well. The boy was becoming a man, but it was a slow, normal pace into adulthood.

Ravan though…

The problem with Haven and Ravan's friendship was that he had to be done out of the eyesight of Locke who didn't understand it and kind of hated it, honestly. Haven pretended like she didn't care about things, but the idea of having to choose between Ravan and Locke would suck because, well, losing Ravan would be a huge blow to her ego. So it was just better to not have the decision come about. Ravan understood. Or at least he seemed to. He never questioned why she was a bit more of a jerk to him when Locke was around. He didn't care.

Haven was his only friend. Something he was learning quickly was better to have than not. He didn't mind that it was only cultivated when Locke was off training with his father or when he and Haven met up at the clubhouse, somehow without the other boy, so they could train alone. He knew he wasn't, like, her best friend or whatever. Locke would always be that. It didn't matter, really, what they were. He was just glad to have someone to talk to.

Laxus didn't feel the same way. At all. He didn't care that Ravan was a friendless loser who needed Haven's guidance (that's how she felt about it, anyways). No. Laxus cared, as the kids aged, that his daughter was getting extremely close to an older boy (just slightly, but a year could make a hell of a difference in adolescence) who seemed to have little to no supervision or influence. Yeah, he was Erza's little whatever, but the woman was hardly someone to explain the complexity of puberty and bleh.

Neither was Laxus.

But if he had a son, he'd definitely at least broach the subject.

He highly doubted Erza did.

Which meant that Ravan, who was already a ticking time bomb anyways, was now running around with all these fucking emotions and feelings that he was struggling to explain all on his own and on top of that, Laxus was just supposed to let his daughter hang around him, unsupervised? Ha. No.

Well, no in the sense that he didn't want this to happen, but yeah, probably, in the one that of course this was going on. Of course it was. Because Laxus had never once successfully stuck to his guns with any rearing of Haven and Mirajane, the parent who was at least somewhat successful, seemed too oblivious to the obvious brewing problem to do anything about it.

"They're just friends, Laxus," she told him with a bit of a frown. "What exactly were you doing at fourteen that you're so worried about them?"

Uh, try becoming the greatest mage ever.

On top of dealing with the same feelings he was worried they were.

"You should be more worried about Locke," his wife pointed out once.

But Locke was a dork. A stupid, dumb dork.

Still, Laxus found himself waiving the having to take said stupid, dumb dork out on jobs, hoping the chance at going on serious jobs all alone would entice Haven. And they did. But not as much as her desire to rule over others.

She wasn't ready just yet, it seemed, to completely put Fairy Tail behind her.

"Locke and Navi need me," she explained to Ravan one day when they were hiding out from the pair in the clubhouse. "What would they do without me?"

"Probably whatever they want to do instead of what you want to do."

"Shut up."

But she didn't even glare at him. Only continued to flick with him through different magazines, looking at all the different armor before them. He needed assistance, he claimed, in figuring out what he wanted. Haven understood this. Who wouldn't want her opinion?

"Besides," Haven was going on as he stared over at her, "I know how great I am on my own. How powerful. How can I be sure that they're nowhere close to me? Unless we go out on jobs?"

"Why are you telling me this?" he asked. "Aren't you afraid I won't go all out then? On jobs? Because I don't want you...what are you doing? Judging people?"

Constantly. It was what she was best at.

"What are you gonna do?" she asked with a frown. "Not slice up as many bad guys? Shut up, Ravan. Idiot."

He was good for it, anyways, what was really happening. Haven spent so much time around Locke, did so many things with Locke, that though she shared most her thoughts and secrets with the boy, sometimes their proximity meant that she had things she needed to keep from him as well. Given she had so few other options for a confidant, Ravan easily fell to second string. If Locke didn't get to hear about it, more than likely Ravan did.

"You should stop hanging around Ravan so much."

Which is why it was such a big problem when stupid Laxus would say stuff like that.

It wasn't like Haven had any intention of ever following his direction anyways. But the idea that he thought, for some reason, that he could force her into not being friends with the boy only made her want to be friends with him _so much more_. Laxus reasons were dumb anyways. He said that Ravan was dangerous and that he didn't like how much the two of them fought, but she did the same things with Locke. Was Locke not dangerous? She was alone way more with him.

Why did Laxus care so much about Ravan?

Especially when Locke had so much more influence.

"Why don't you just leave Marin alone sometimes?" he asked, like he usually did, but it felt different that day on the train.

"It's not like she can beat me," Haven told him with a glare. Ravan was sleeping and Navi was going over the map, across from them, as the blonde only glared out the window. She could feel his heavy, red eyes on her though."At all."

"I know. We all know." He wasn't letting up. "But why do you have to fight with her about it?"

"She's the one-"

"You're picking on a kid."

"Whatever, Locke."

But when they arrived home, Haven could tell the second she was around her sister that Marin was expecting a quip or disparaging comment. And she was prepared for it, all tense and stuff. Like she honestly would buck up to her sister. She just ignored her though, Haven did, and when she did speak to her, who and who wasn't a real mage never left her mouth.

Locke was right. Haven would never tell him this and, if pressed, would only claim she came to that decision on her own. But it was true enough. Marin and Kai were babies. Kids. Something they no longer were. As she edged towards the center of the teen years and he reached the later, they were far from children.

They still spent as much time together as they could, like they were children. Jobs were usually had together, between her and Locke, with Navi staggering off to slowly only going if specifically asked and Ravan recognizing easily how awkward it was, between just the three of them.

"You don't have to be a jerk to him."

"I'm not," Locke would complain if she said anything about their attitudes towards one another. He prided himself, after all, as being a nice, stand up guy. "He's the one-"

"Be the bigger person."

"You're telling someone else that now? And why do you care?"

"Why do you care that I care?"

"What?"

But Haven was just as quickly shoving at him and they were heading out on a job, anyways, so they had more important things to talk about. Like what they were gonna get to eat, before hitting the train station.

Besides, Locke really didn't feel like he was a complete asshole to Ravan. No, he just reacted to the assholery that Ravan directed his way. It had always been that way. When they were kids, at the very beginning, he was actually excited to have another boy there to hang out with. But Ravan ruined that. Not the other way around.

"No, it looks...it looks..." Navi had nothing as Ravan stood before them in his new armor, helmet and all. "Uh, Locke?"

"It looks ridiculous." There. Fine. Sometimes he could be an asshole first. Whatever.

They couldn't see it, but Ravan'glare from behind his shielded eyes were obvious. Haven though, who'd helped him decide on the design, said nothing because these were the exact kind of situations where she'd never want Locke to rule against her. If she started ruling with Ravan, she could risk exactly that.

"I don't like her," she found herself saying a few different times there, when Locke first started actually being interested in other girls around Magnolia and that was so annoying to Haven. Not for the right reasons, probably, but mostly because him ever having friends other than her always bothered the girl.

Plus…

"I just don't," she'd add when question and Locke would groan and only defy her a few times, here or there, but crushes seemed fleeting for the boy, anyways. His mom would giggle and call him a romantic sometimes, just to make him blush and complain, but it was probably true in some way.

"Locke just likes for people to like him," Haven told Ravan once who really didn't want to talk about Locke. Ever. But he was very busy working on his motorcycle, out in Erza's backyard, so he was only halfway listening anyways. "It's not that big of a deal."

"Then shut up about it."

That came from Kai though, who was very busy in the backyard, crying over his dead flowers. They'd had a pretty bad hailstorm the night before and, as he was out of town with Marin (Ever and Elf took them on a trip). As Haven glared, Marin, who was of course there with him, on her knees by where he sat beside his flowerbed, looking over all the destruction the ice had waged, just patted at her friend's shoulders comfortingly.

"Ways of the heart are often complex."

Erza was out there too, of course, mostly to disapprovingly remark on how all the children could be doing more important things. Like develop their magic or go on jobs. Still, she never missed and opportunity to lecture.

"Rarely, in the days of youth, are you able to recognize the true intent of your feelings," she went on as the kids only stared. "One day you are hot, one cold. It is only once you reach your adulthood that you understand the true desire for the lukewarm."

"We don't have time for riddles, Erza!" Kai was rare to do it, but he was raising his voice to the woman then. "My garden is dead!"

"Locke's just stupid," Haven decided for them all so that they didn't have to hear her go on. "That's all."

It wasn't all, of course, but the mixed company was only dragging the conversation away from Haven's ability to go on and on about mindless things and, well, she didn't care to hear about other's problems. Only her own.

Locke wasn't the one changing the most though, in those days. Rather, Navi became even more unreachable as she spent most of the days working on stupid stories that she wrote, many of which she used the tales of those around the guild for, which pissed Haven off even more, that bit did. Mostly because even when Navi was around the guildhall, she didn't want to go out on a job. No. She was busy talking to Elfman or Max or someone else that Haven didn't want to hear about.

She was losing control of the Dragneel girl.

The final nail in the coffin was when Navi started dating people and ugh, she was so into boys and stuff that she and Haven, who already had nothing to talk about, had even less to talk about. There'd always been a wall between the two of them, but it felt like the mortar was just beginning to set.

"Don't you even wanna be a mage?" Haven complained to her more than once, but over the years, it felt like Navi's insistence of yes got less and less.

"Your dream isn't everyone's dream," her mother pointed out often. "And it's good that Navi feels like this. About stories. We all have so many of them. It'll be nice to have them written down. Remembered."

Who wanted to remember the past though? Not Haven. Not when she was so focused on the not so distant future.

"He's so stupid," she whispered one night as she and Ravan sat out on Erza's front porch. The woman was gone, off on a job with Navi's parents while Kai was snoozing inside (his hours were unmanagable up at the hall in those days; Mira wanted him there at seven; what nerve), leaving the pair alone. It was while Ravan felt comfortable lighting up a cigarette and trying to pretend to like it as well as hide his coughs. As usual, Haven was too concerned with herself to pay much mind. "I hate him."

She wasn't talking about Locke though. Thankfully. Just her father. He was pissed at her once more as he always was in those days and Haven had spent most of the night riding around with Ravan on the back of his bike, hoping it would make her feel better. It hadn't. If Locke was around, she'd probably drag him out on a job, just to get away from Laxus, but he was off with his father, so she went with the second string.

Ravan didn't mind. He had no plans anyways.

It went along with having zero other friends.

"He thinks he can just put rules on what I do. He can't."

"Well," Ravan choked around the bitterness he'd just inhaled, "he is Master."

Traitor.

But Haven didn't have any hate left over for someone else. Not when she was expending it all towards her father.

"He's just mad," she continued on, "because he's going nowhere. But I am. Far away from here. Soon. Watching."

Ravan offered to drive her back that night (or at least close to her home; he didn't want to catch the wrath of the already pissed off Master), but Haven wanted to walk around for a bit. Even implied she wasn't going home. Ravan didn't offer to go with her, wherever she was headed, but that was for the best; she didn't want him there anyways.

It had been a bit since Haven went back there. To the clubhouse. Since they all had. The kids were growing up and apart, kind of, at least some of them, and it just wasn't somewhere they wanted to hang out much. She knew that Marin, Kai, and Ajax were there often, but not after dark. No. She planned on being alone.

"What are you doing here?"

"Can I not be here? It is my dad's place."

Haven made a face at Navi and they were fighting, maybe, recently. Or at least not around one another much. As Haven joined her at the fire pit though, harsh tongues weren't had. Navi just skewered another weenie for the other girl.

"Where's Locke?"

"On a job," Haven whispered as she mostly just stared into the flames, watching them jump about. Navi, far more comfortable around fire, hardly paid it any mind.

"Where's Ravan?"

"Home."

"Then-"

"I can do things without them."

But not many.

"Shouldn't you be with your brothers?" Haven asked. "If your parents are gone? Or-"

"They're inside."

Haven frowned over at the clubhouse behind them.

Great.

She definitely wasn't sticking around long then.

"So is your cousin. Ajax." Navi frowned as Haven was quickly getting to her feet at that. "Uh-"

"I do not," the older girl insisted, "want to see him."

At all.

Navi didn't understand. "How come?"

"Because-"

"Haven! Thought I heard you."

Ugh.

Ajax.

Navi, she fell so easily into it. The nurturing role. She might not like all the responsibility that was constantly placed on her shoulders in regards to her brothers, but she loved them immensely and was able to see how none of that was their fault.

Haven, in regards to her younger cousin, was not this at all. She rejected any sort of sentimental bone she had in her body. The boy was little more than a nuisance. A problem. Someone to avoid.

"Have you been back? I missed you."

Mostly because he loved his cousin.

Very much.

Unlike Marin who Haven had grown up tormenting, Ajax luckily fell below the line for his entire childhood of an age Haven was willing to bully and push around. Even then, as he awoke the twins who came to the doorway, just to stare out, the boy only ran right out to come toss his arms around the other girl.

There was no one he loved more than Haven.

Other than his father.

And she only grimaced as Navi grinned.

"Did you wanna see a trick I learned?" the boy asked as Haven only shoved him off as best she could without out right shoving him down (preferably into the fire). "I can do a back flip perfect now. Not like before, when I said I could, but really couldn't and then got hurt. Honest. I-"

"Fine," Haven grumbled as the boy quickly ran back, to have room to build up speed. "But I have to go. Right after."

She might not feel nurturing, in any way, but she always struggled to deny the boy. It was why she tried to avoid him so much.

Which is why she ended up staying the night at the clubhouse, at his assistance, but as Navi just made the boys go back inside, to their sleeping bags, she and Haven sat out by the fire, long into the night, eventually falling back into more comfortable conversation.

Navi griped a bit, about having to watch the kids, but this quickly shifted over to some stupid boy that she was fighting with recently and Haven didn't understand it. How the others could do it. Meet people outside of the guild. Unless they were the ones requesting help from a job request, Haven rarely interacted with people outside of Fairy Tail.

"I mean, you understand, right?" Navi would ask sometimes and Haven, in the past, would have assumed this was the girl just throwing it back in her face that no, she didn't understand, and she knew it, but this wasn't so.

Navi wasn't out to get Haven. They might not see eye to eye anymore, maybe they never had, but it was not the Dragneel girl's intent to alienate her from her life; just the natural progression of things. It was part of being a leader, maybe, that Haven had never rightly seen before. It was more than bossing people around, she knew that then, but it was more than just listening, like she had for Ravan, that first time they became friends. It was more than siding with you, the way she did with Locke.

It meant letting people go, if they were ready to be let go. And Navi wasn't yet, not completely. She'd come around still, for jobs, sometimes, but it was becoming obvious that this just wasn't going to be the case as they all grew. And Haven had to respect that.

"We just have different dreams, I guess," she told Locke as they hung out in his room, at his parent's house, one afternoon. His mother was around, but busy with a book, and the resident Exceed had snickered at them, when he saw them head to the boy's room, but Haven only laid on Locke's bed as he sat at his desk, flipping just as heavily through a book of his own. He felt like he was onto something, with his medical magic, and yeah, he was kind of listening to Haven, but most of his attention was elsewhere. "Me and Navi."

"Yeah," Locke whispered as his eyes scanned the pages before him hungrily. "You do."

"I don't wanna be here forever either. You know."

"I know."

She was toying with it then, the gemstone that always hung from her neck, toying with it as she stared up at the old, faded glow-in-the-dark stars that hung from his ceiling. She could remember when they were kids and Gajeel put them up for the boy, not even needing a ladder. No. He let them spread them across his Iron Dragon's Club, sticky side up, before he'd slam it up there. She must have spent the night over at his house for a week after that, so each night they could stare up at them and be amazed.

"I'm turning sixteen. I can go where I want."

She couldn't. Not yet.

"If not now," she vowed, "then definitely in the next year. Bet."

"I bet," he agreed, glancing over his shoulder at her. "I mean, unless you get S-Class this year, right?"

She didn't smile, but did make something close to one. Maybe. He was just as quickly turning away, anyways, back to his book.

"If you do, you have to wait for me to get it," he went on. "Remember?"

Of course.

They'd be S-Class together.

Just with her being it first. In her mind, anyways.

"As if Laxus would ever give it to anyone anyways." She was, just as quickly, back to the negative. "He's an ass."

But Locke didn't answer because he was lost, just for a bit, in his book. And as he whispered some sort of enchantment under his breath, he only held out a hand, hardly believing it as the magic circle appeared.

"Alright!"

He yelled it, quite loudly and even jumped up some, startling Haven some. Frowning, she shoved him from his bed to come closer.

"What?"

But he was turning back to it, the tome and the notebook that lay beside it where, in much neater print than her, he'd seemed to deconstruct some spells and reconfigure them and gross, Haven hated that shit, but he was so into it. Apparently it paid off.

As they both leaned down, over the desk, Haven rested her hands on it and Locke one on her shoulder, as he tried to explain, but he knew, of course, how gibberish everything that wasn't blatant was to the girl. She didn't enjoy magic that wasn't simple, yet powerful. Or had the ability to gain power through easy means.

But medical magic wasn't easy and was far more about the technical side. You couldn't make mistakes in it. Not if it were life or death.

And he was muttering more than explaining because Haven wasn't listening, hardly even reading along with his finger as he drug it across the notebook, eyes not following along in the slightest as, his head, she glanced up at him and he glanced down at her nad it was just always gonna happen.

At least once.

Right?

"Boys and girls can't be friends," Laxus insisted so frequently when it came to her and Ravan and yeah, he was right.

About she and Locke, at least.

She left too, quickly, after they broke apart and Locke felt awkward about it too. Even worse when his mother asked why Haven didn't stay for dinner and he only shrugged and muttered something about Laxus constantly on her about this or that and was true.

The man was mad at her when she came home.

But it was about her attitude earlier in the day, when she more or less got into it with one of the more lowly guild members up at the hall over a job request.

"You're not some sort of...princess, Haven. You don't run anything down there. You don't-"

"Just shut up."

"Haven-"

"Laxus."

They glared at one another too, as he'd risen to from the kitchen table, just to confront her, but Haven only marked passed him then, to the icebox, to get a soda and go seal herself off in her bedroom.

Marin, unfortunately, was apparently off duty from the hall and gross, she did not need to be around someone else right then. She needed her own room. Her own home. Her own guild, honestly.

Truthfully.

She couldn't avoid Locke forever though. Or even long. Because the next morning he was by and Laxus was grumbling something down at the hall as they sat at the kitchen table together. Gross. Haven almost didn't leave her room.

"Locke's here!" Marin called to her as she left for her shift down at the guildhall though and ugh.

Own house. Truly.

He didn't smile at her though, Locke did, as she came into the room. And Haven only slid into a seat at the kitchen table while Laxus ignored her with as much intent as one could ignore a person. Mirajane was humming though, over at the stove, because Marin and Kai were doing so well at the hall recently that she didn't even have to open that often anymore. Laxus was pleased with this, considering it eliminated any excuse for his wife not to make him breakfast.

Haven only seethed because of course Locke was dumb enough to show up when both her parents were around.

Stupid.

But Laxus had a meeting out of town and Mira had to get ready for work and before long, it was just them at the kitchen table, Locke looking over Laxus' discarded newspaper and Haven still only picking at her eggs.

"Are we fighting?"

"No."

"Oh. Then-"

"Shut up, Locke."

It was always best to just follow orders.

They took off for a job together that day, her avoiding Ravan because she didn't want to deal with him too, and she had long stopped asking Navi to go, but when she saw the other girl up at the guildhall, she made sure not even to glance at her. They had to go alone. Just her and Locke.

It served it's purpose, anyways. As they hunkered down on a train for a long one, they muttered stuff to one another as they sat side by side, shoulders touching, and Haven didn't even get into it about stupid Laxus and the guildhall shit, because they had to get the air all cleared. So they could focus. Out on their job.

"Things always have a way of working out," he reminded Haven softly as her fingers brushed his open palm, as if toying with the idea of holding it, "in Fairy Tail."

They did.

Ravan had his stupid bandanna around his mouth when she came by his house a few days later, victorious and with whatever Locke was now. He thought that he was so good at hiding it, all of his emotions, behind the garment, but she could tell he frowned as they sat on the back porch.

"Don't tell anyone," Haven insisted though to him. "I don't want Laxus to get all...weird about it."

He only shrugged, Ravan did.

Who did he have to tell?

She was his only friend.

"Are you guys gonna be weird now?" he challenged back and Haven just slugged him at insinuation and he slugged her back and they trained until it got late and she had to leave.

Idiot.

Laxus was around when she got home, but he wasn't awake. Rather, he was passed out on the couch, his beer can only somewhat stable on his knee and Haven frowned at the sight. Some master.

She was careful though, as she went to take the bottle from him and set it on the coffee table, taking care not to wake the man as she only went to her bedroom in the too small house that he'd always swore they'd move out of eventually because it was, honestly, just way too small.

Falling into bed, she tossed and arm over her eyes and cursed, alone for awhile, as her mother and sister still put in the late shift at the bar, only able to playback everything that had happened the past few days, from her job to...to...Locke and…

And she'd be sixteen so soon. So very soon. And then seventeen. And then gone. She knew it. She just did. She didn't have the tragic backstory, the fabled magic, and rejected the legacy that was presented to her. Laid out before her. Was there to be claimed.

No.

Haven felt prophetic, felt driven, felt destined, but it had nothing to do with fairy tales or broken dreams passed from one worn out parental figure to their supposed successor. It was happening, everything that she thought, everything that she dreamed, everything that she wanted, because she would make it happen. Every bit of it.

If she closed her eyes tightly enough, she could still see it, still taste it, still hear it, those long nights spent in the clubhouse, whispering their hopes, their thoughts, their everything, to one another. Three, four, two, one, it didn't matter.

Because it was behind her. In the past.

And Haven only had eyes for the future.

* * *

**Alright, we're setting up now. The outline I have is still rather loose, but I should have the next installment ready soon. I'm assuming a ten chapter story, either a five chapter story, or maybe just a long one-shot, we'll see, then we'll have two ten (or more) chapter stories that will finish this shit out. I know it still sounds like a lot, but trust me guys, once we get going, we'll be finished in no time. And then after then, we can always go back in and fill any gaps, huh? That's it for this one though. Onto the next. **


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